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On the other hand, statistics from the Ministry of Health on medical and nursing personnel have been used. However, they only include staff working at the National Health System. This data source is not comparable to the above-mentioned National Statistics Institute data source, as it uses a different data collection methodology. Nevertheless, these Ministry of Health statistics do include the different tasks of the professionals: primary care, hospitals and emergency services.
The [[:File:Spain_National -Health -System -medical staff-staff_2019_map_18445_eng.jpg|''National Health System medical staff'']] included 131,517 professionals towards the beginning of 2020. 32.5% of these worked in primary care, 65% in hospitals and 2.5% in 112 and 061 emergency telephone number services. The information for this indicator is mapped by region and shows the different rates per thousand inhabitants. The national average is 2.8 doctors per thousand inhabitants. Most of the regions in the northern half of Spain are above the average. Andalusia (Andalucía) and the Canary Islands (Canarias) are the regions with the lowest ratios.
The [[:File:Spain_National -Health -System nursing staff-Nursing-staff_2019_map_18446_eng.jpg|''National Health System nursing staff'']] included 191,452 professionals, distributed unevenly across the above-mentioned three sectors. 78.8% of this personnel worked in hospitals, whilst 19.5% worked in primary care and 1.7% of the staff worked in 112 and 061 emergency telephone number services. The amount of nursing staff follows a very similar spatial pattern to that of doctors: the national average lies by 4.1 per thousand inhabitants, and the regions that exceed this average are in the northern half of Spain.
In addition to human and material resources, another actor that played a crucial role during the first wave of the pandemic shall be mentioned: solidarity. It came from different sources, sometimes driven from above by public and private organisations, sometimes from within society itself, either individually or in groups. It would be preposterous to assess whether the resources that existed prior to the pandemic were proportional to the challenge this new situation presented. It is worth noting that the scale and severity of the impact was very difficult to foresee, so it was necessary to optimise all available resources and to be very diligent in providing new ones in extremely difficult times. It shall be noted that the public authorities and Spanish society in general responded to the challenge of the pandemic with the forces available at the time and with an extraordinary spirit of solidarity.
