The Community of Madrid is facing an unusually early start to the flu season with worrying data. The region registers
An accelerated increase in the number of infections
The advance of the flu is noticeable in health centers and schools. ” I keep testing children and a teacher told me that half of her students were missing in class,” explained a nurse at the Las Tablas outpatient clinic last Tuesday. And the trend continues to rise.
Data from week 47 (November 10-23) confirm this escalation: 2,973 cases were reported, 1,305 more than the previous week. In total, the 2025/2026 season already accumulates 8,387 infections.
Health care rules out extraordinary measures
Despite the magnitude of the outbreak, the Community of Madrid does not contemplate additional actions. The Minister of Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, Miguel Ángel García Martín, assured that the region does not plan to reinforce resources beyond vaccination and the use of masks by vulnerable groups.
The institutional message contrasts with the concern of health personnel, who anticipate very complicated weeks if the number of personnel is not increased.
Nurses denounce lack of personnel: “There won’t be any available”.
The nursing union Satse has once again denounced the lack of professionals at a time when the Madrid healthcare system could face high pressure. They consider that the administration is late: “A winter plan, which unfortunately falls on deaf ears, as it does every year,” they lament.
According to the organization, the Community has only reported the hiring of twenty nurses in Primary Care to vaccinate in nursing homes. A “clearly insufficient” reinforcement, especially when compared with other autonomous regions such as Andalusia, which “will offer contracts to more than 3,000 nurses to cover Christmas leave” and will give two-month full-time contracts to its interim nurses.
Hospital staffing crisis: “More than a hundred would be needed”.
Satse points out several worrying cases, including the situation at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital. According to the union, “we have been told informally that the Gregorio Marañón Hospital could hire 30 or 40 if it finds them, when in fact more than a hundred are needed in that center”.
The secretary of union action of Satse Madrid, Ricardo Furió, warns of a scenario very similar to that experienced in previous seasons: “Soon we will again find patients in the hallways, enduring lights on all day, waiting several days on uncomfortable stretchers to get to a room, to a bed, and all this without enough nurses to cope with this situation.
“The Department has not done its homework”: precarious conditions and lack of foresight
Furió blames this situation on poor management. In his opinion, the problem is not cyclical, but structural: “Because the Regional Ministry of Health has not done its homework in time. Because they mistreat the nurses, with short contracts, paying them worse than the rest of the Autonomous Communities, denying them leave and not allowing them to rest”.
The union insists that, when more hiring is finally authorized, it will be too late: “when the hiring of nurses is authorized, at the height of the crisis epidemic, there will be none available,” they warn .
A winter that comes early
The combination of an advanced virus, a high rate of contagion and a health system under minimums is once again setting off the alarm bells. While the regional government opts to maintain the basic recommendations, professionals fear a preventable collapse if an urgent reinforcement is not implemented.
Madrid is thus facing an early winter in healthcare, with the flu advancing rapidly and a growing tension between healthcare needs and available resources. The next few weeks will be key in determining whether the region manages to contain the pressure without extraordinary measures or whether, as the nurses warn, the system will once again be overwhelmed.
