The average waiting time for the dependency system stood at 314 days at the end of September in Spain as a whole, while in the Balearic Islands it was 188 days, 40% below the national average.

Every time a hospital needs a bone marrow donor, the REDMO initiates a search that crosses registries, hospitals, and borders. At the helm is Sergi Querol, a hematologist specializing in transplants and cell therapy. Before directing the Bone Marrow Donors Registry, managed by the Josep Carreras Foundation, he spent more than twenty years leading the Barcelona Cord Blood Bank and participated in the development of the British Anthony Nolan bank. Querol explains why 44 million registered people do not guarantee finding a compatible donor, how this international network works, and why the challenge now is to incorporate more young people into it.

Teresa Jiménez is a hematologist and medical director of the Blood Bank at the Blood and Tissue Bank Foundation of the Balearic Islands. She has witnessed firsthand the change in the recruitment of marrow donors in the Balearic Islands: from 44 new registrations in 2023, they went to 545 in 2025. Despite this increase, more are still needed, especially young people and those of diverse backgrounds. Jiménez explains what it means to join the Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDMO), how compatibility is checked, and what happens if, years later, the call comes.

The Son Espases University Hospital has accumulated more than 60 patients pending admission this Tuesday, a situation that the center attributes to the consequences of the DANA and Monday's rainfall in Mallorca. At 3:00 PM, data from the IB-Salut Transparency Portal recorded 161 people waiting to be attended to in the emergency department of the islands' reference hospital.

Guillermo donated bone marrow without going through the operating room or having to take days of rest. Contrary to what many people believe, this is what happens in most cases. "I walked out and went to do my shopping at Mercadona," he explains. He had spent three hours lying down with a needle in each arm while a machine extracted stem cells from his blood and returned the rest to him. "It was as simple as donating blood, just a little longer." He is 25 years old, is from Malaga, lives in Palma, and signed up in 2023 to the Bone Marrow Donor Registry (Redmo), which is managed by the Josep Carreras Foundation.

One summer day in 2020, at 59 years old, shortly before retiring as a teacher, Toni Gornals Mesquida Pubil (Porreres, 1960) received news that would change his life. A 'new companion' would be with him for life and had a name as familiar as it was unexpected. Who hasn't heard of or said the word Parkinson's when seeing a trembling hand? We speak with this man from Porreres who faces a chronic and progressive disease with an extra boost of energy and without canceling any of the plans he had always thought of doing when he retired. Quite the opposite, he signs up for everything to keep the disease at bay.

Around a thousand people have claimed the role of the third sector in mental health at an event in Sineu on the occasion of World Mental Health Day. The central moment of the day was the reading of a manifesto, which was carried out by Aina Bonet, Victòria Barceló, Laura Ordóñez, Elionor Pons, Alícia Gispert and Gisela Bris, representing the six member entities of the federation, to demand "a change of perspective" on mental health and to defend that the recovery of patients "goes far beyond strictly medical care".

The Emergency service of the Hospital of Manacor has been recognized with the BSH (Best Spanish Hospitals Awards) 2026 award as the best hospital Emergency service among medium-sized public hospitals. The award compares the results of the centers based on real data from their healthcare activity.

The Department of Health defends the incorporation of general health psychologists into the public Primary Care network to respond to the increase in the demand for mental health care. The Director General of Mental Health, Carme Bosch, considers that these professionals have sufficient training to take on cases corresponding to the first level of care, while psychologists specializing in Clinical Psychology must attend to disorders of greater complexity. The Official College of Psychology of the Balearic Islands (COPIB) also endorses the incorporation of general health psychologists and demands, at the same time, an increase in PIR training places, because it considers the two paths to be compatible. Clinical psychologists, on the other hand, have expressed their discomfort to the Department regarding the incorporation of this profile into the public health system.

The Minister of Health, Manuela García, appeared this Wednesday before the Parliament's Health Commission, six months after the PSIB made an urgent request for her to provide explanations regarding the collapse of the Balearic public health system. García has denied that there is a collapse and has defended her management. What she did do was justify the strain on the system with the growth and aging of the population. "Not only are there more of us, but we are living longer. Since the legislature began, there are 40,000 more people entitled to healthcare benefits," she remarked at the beginning of her appearance – right now there are 1,258,490 people in the Islands with a health card. As she explained, primary care centers handle an average of 33,643 consultations every day. "In hospitals, 1,522 emergencies are attended to, 223 surgical interventions are performed, and around 5,840 specialized consultations are conducted," she detailed. García also highlighted the increase in chronic patients on the Islands, a fact derived from aging. With 210,230 people over 65 years of age – 59,117 over 80 – "34,406 complex chronic patients and 2,549 advanced chronic patients" have been identified.

The Ministry of Health wants checking the state of mental health to be as routine as monitoring diet or eyesight. On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, which is celebrated this Saturday, October 10th, the Government has emphasized the importance of detecting emotional difficulties in time and bringing mental health resources closer to Primary Care. The Minister of Health, Manuela García, noted that when a person is asked how they are, they often automatically reply that they are fine, without stopping to think about their emotional state. "We want to recover the deep meaning of how we are, stop for a minute and listen to ourselves: saying 'I am not okay', recognizing that we are going through a difficult time," she pointed out.

Nurses continue to be classified as A2 category personnel in the public health system, a situation that the collective is demanding to change. The claim is not new, but in 2026 it has gained weight with the reform of the Framework Statute of statutory personnel of health services, which proposes leaving behind the current A1-A2 system and establishing a new classification linked to the level of qualifications. In the Balearic Islands, the IB-Salut salary tables place nurses, midwives, and physiotherapists in the A2 category, among other health categories that hold a university degree. The debate also affects professions such as speech therapy and occupational therapy. And also the education sector, where Primary and Infant education teachers are A2 and Secondary, Vocational Training, and Special Regime teachers are A1.

The American Urological Association (AUA) has incorporated for the first time into its reference guide for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of kidney stones the use of phytate and theobromine, two molecules developed and patented by researchers from the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB).

The 2026-2027 flu vaccination campaign will begin on Monday, October 5th, in schools, nursing homes, and facilities for people with disabilities, and among patients receiving home care. This year, the main new feature is that childhood vaccination is being extended to children up to 11 years old, while for the first time, protection against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) will also be offered to certain vulnerable adults. From October 19th, furthermore, the flu vaccination will open to the entire population of the Balearic Islands, regardless of whether or not they are part of high-risk groups. Interested people will be able to book an appointment through Espai Salut, by calling 971 220 000, or in person at their health center.

A private university in Costa Rica operating since 2025, Mundae Universidad, has promoted its Nursing degree using the Balearic Government's logo as a collaborating entity. It appeared in its official student recruitment dossier until this Wednesday, while it was removed from the website at the request of the IB-Salut, which claims it knew nothing about it. Mundae has denied this information and has assured that it currently does not use any of the mentioned logos in any document or section of its website, although it did appear in the dossier consulted yesterday by ARA Balears. The university admits that in the past it included the IB-Salut logo by mistake following a one-off collaboration with the Menorca Health Area. It also says that the current relationship with the CGE "is cordial".

The Medical Strike Committee announced this Friday an indefinite nationwide strike starting on October 28th to protest against the Statute Framework bill and demand specific regulations for doctors and medical professionals. The mobilization has been agreed upon by the main medical trade union organizations and 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 intended 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%.