The Medical Strike Committee announced this Friday an indefinite nationwide strike starting on October 28th to protest against the Framework Statute bill and demand specific regulations for doctors and medical professionals. The mobilization has been agreed upon by the main medical trade union organizations and also has the support of the Medical and Professional Union (UMYF). The call comes ten days after the Council of Ministers approved the bill that is to replace the regulations in force since 2003, which is now continuing its parliamentary processing in the Congress of Deputies.

The Nursing union Satse has demanded this Thursday from the Minister of Health, Manuela García, the immediate dismissal of the managing director of the Son Espases University Hospital, Cristina Granados, following the resignation of the Nursing director, Natalia Vallés. The union considers that the situation in the management of the Balearic Islands' reference hospital is "unsustainable" and maintains that Vallés' departure adds to the succession of resignations and dismissals in executive positions at the center.

The staff board of the Son Espases University Hospital has not approved the drafting of a condemnation document regarding the alleged case of workplace harassment reported by the center's former communications manager, the journalist Sabrina Vidal. The issue was addressed this Monday in an extraordinary meeting called at the request of the nursing union Satse, after Vidal made her case public last week. However, the hospital manager, Cristina Granados, did not attend the meeting.

"The investigation depended on the manager." This is how Sabrina Vidal, former head of Communication at Son Espases, responds to the statements of the general director of IB-Salut, Javier Ureña, who has stated that the former professional had not reported the harassment situation that, according to her version, she suffered during her time at the center to the occupational risk prevention services. Vidal directly points to the hospital manager, Cristina Granados, and assures that she was told that the appropriate action was to create an investigation group, but that the one who had to lead it or designate it was the manager herself. "They told me not to report her, because the appropriate action is to form an investigation group to determine what is happening, and the one who leads it or appoints the person responsible is the manager herself. It is a perverse system," explains Vidal.

The surgical waiting list continues to grow in the Balearic Islands. A total of 17,585 people were waiting at the end of August for a surgical intervention in the public hospitals of the Islands, 17.8% more than a year ago. In parallel, the average time patients have to wait to go to the operating room has been set at 116.04 days, almost four months and with an increase of 8.4% compared to August 2025, according to data from IB-Salut updated on August 31. The trend is particularly worrying among patients with the longest waiting times. Currently, 3,367 people have been awaiting surgery for more than six months, 40.4% more than a year ago. In addition, 1,481 patients have been waiting between five and six months to be operated on. This latter group has also increased compared to August 2025, specifically by 18.6%.

The IB-Salut denies that the difficulties in invoicing and collecting healthcare for tourists are a widespread problem within public healthcare. The IB-Salut's management director, Yago Gómez, argues that the majority of invoicing is recovered and attributes pending cases to specific situations.

It is not an easy debate. Talking about the cost of healthcare for tourists forces us to walk a fine and delicate border line. On the one hand, the principle of universality of healthcare, which guarantees that anyone who needs it must be treated; on the other hand, the obligation of whoever has to assume the cost of that care.

Going to the doctor, getting a test, going to the Emergency Room, or spending a night admitted to the hospital does not mean you have to take out your wallet when you are entitled to public healthcare. But just because the patient doesn't pay at the time of receiving care doesn't mean it's free. Every consultation, every test, every treatment, and every admission has a cost that the public system assumes and that, ultimately, is paid for with everyone's resources. The official IB-Salut rates allow us to put figures on this invisible bill and better understand the value of the healthcare services available to everyone.

In a villa in Andratx, the Balearic public health service went to attend to a tourist, diagnosed him with a kidney stone, gave him medication, and left without charging him a single euro. The visit was also not recorded. It was an Austrian couple without a European Health Insurance Card, and the professionals had to travel to their home to attend to the man. "We found them both having a snack by the pool, a tremendous luxury. We did everything in English. The visit was neither charged nor recorded," explains a nurse with professional experience in different centers in Mallorca.

The Public Health Surveillance Service has detected at least six people affected by a measles outbreak in Mallorca, as reported this Monday by the Ministry of Health. The cases are related and the patients have been treated in the same hospital, although Public Health has classified the outbreak as community-acquired and not of sanitary origin. Epidemiological investigation has determined that the first case was that of a minor tourist who attended the Pediatric Emergencies of Son Espases Hospital on July 19. The secondary cases began to show symptoms at the end of July. Five of the six affected were not vaccinated against measles, while for the sixth, there is no vaccination record.

The Government will prohibit the sale and supply of energy drinks to minors and will ban the marketing of nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas, when intended for inhalation for recreational purposes. The Governing Council approved this Friday a decree-law of urgent measures regarding public health protection that will now have to be validated by Parliament. The Minister of Health, Manuela García, defended both measures as a response to two "public health problems" that particularly affect the young population. "Both prohibitions are backed by data and have the support of the scientific community," she assured during the press conference following the Governing Council.

Healthcare waiting lists continue to worsen in the Balearic Islands. As of July 31, a total of 17,139 people were awaiting surgical intervention in the public hospitals of the Islands, an 18.2% increase compared to the same month last year. Furthermore, the average waiting time to undergo surgery has increased to 107.71 days, an 11% increase compared to July 2025, according to updated IB-Salut data.

The Government and the Consell de Mallorca have launched the implementation of shared electronic health records in residences, both public and private, with the aim that residents' information can be consulted by both healthcare professionals and residential center staff.

The Department of Health recommends that children under six years of age watch the solar eclipse on August 12th on television and not directly. The Minister of Health, Manuela García, presented the health protocol for this day with a call for "prudence" and "responsibility" to prevent irreversible eye injuries.

Mercedes Febles is the head of Gynecology at Manacor Hospital. A few days ago, she presented the "Es Mujer" initiative in Madrid, a comprehensive state strategy for women's health, with the aim of addressing the different stages and physiological conditions of women in a unified way, such as menstruation, fertility, endometriosis or fibroids, and menopause. The presentation at the Congress of Deputies seeks to give visibility and institutional support to the project.

Throughout the period in which doctors have been on strike against the Ministry's Statute, IB-Salut has maintained a constant attitude of not offering its own monitoring data on the impact of the mobilizations on the medical staff. Instead of publishing official percentages on the professionals' adherence to the stoppage, the Administration has limited itself to reporting on the affected healthcare activity, detailing suspensions of consultations, diagnostic tests, and surgical interventions, as well as rescheduling derived from the situation.

More than 86,000 consultations and tests canceled, more than 2,100 operations postponed, and an economic impact of 12.5 million euros. This is the provisional balance of the 31 days of doctors' strike in the Balearic Islands against the proposed Framework Statute from the Ministry of Health that is advancing in its processing. A conflict that has gone far beyond a labor dispute and has become an open tug-of-war between medical unions, the Ministry, and the autonomous communities over the public healthcare model, in a context where healthcare competencies have been transferred to the autonomies.

When a family from the Islands receives the news that they must leave their home and go to Barcelona for one of them to receive treatment, the illness stops being the only problem. Another race begins: finding a place to sleep, managing work, and learning to live with uncertainty. For more than 20 years, the Association for Aid to the Patient's Companion (ADAA) has been alleviating this burden with a silent and constant task that this year has earned it the ARA Balears Colonya Caixa Pollença Award for Social Action.

The complaints filed with the Office of the Ombudsman for Users of the Public Health System of the Balearic Islands experienced a notable increase during 2025. According to the annual report presented this Wednesday to Parliament by the ombudsman for users, Bernardí Bou, the body processed 251 cases, a figure representing an increase of 37.2% compared to the 183 registered the previous year.