The Department of Health has held the government of Spain responsible for the cancellations and rescheduling of visits, while the opposition has criticized it for not assuming regional responsibilities in healthcare management. The minister, Manuela García, during the plenary session of the Parliament, attributed the 50% increase in waiting time to obtain a first consultation with a specialist to the strikes and pointed directly to the Spanish government as responsible for the situation. "It is Pedro Sánchez's management that has brought us to this point," she stated in response to the socialist deputy Amanda Fernández.

The Son Espases University Hospital has suspended scheduled surgical activity for this Wednesday, except for oncological and priority interventions, to speed up care in the Emergency Department, where there are currently 69 patients awaiting admission. The hospital center has activated a contingency plan in response to the increase in healthcare demand recorded over the last two weeks. As reported by the Ministry of Health this Tuesday in a statement, during this period there have been eight days in which more than 500 patients per day were seen in the Emergency Department. This is a figure higher than the hospital's annual average, which stands at 475 visits each day.

"Combining work in public and private healthcare is a goldmine." This is stated by José Manuel Aranda, a retired Primary Care physician from the Balearic Islands and coordinator of the report on healthcare privatization in the autonomous communities. Aranda believes that juggling both activities can be advantageous for professionals, but warns that there are doctors who go further and work in the private sector during their working hours in public healthcare. A practice that brings to the table the debate about incompatibilities and conflicts of interest in the healthcare system, at a time when healthcare privatization is advancing while waiting lists for the public system are skyrocketing. The retired doctor clarifies, however, that working in private healthcare is not always a profitable business. "Many times people think that working in private healthcare is a goldmine, but that is not the case," he maintains. As an example, he points to the problems that workers may suffer in certain private management models. "Privatization processes, such as in Madrid, do not even bring in enough money to pay salaries," he states.

Private healthcare now accounts for 9.3% of the public health budget in the Balearic Islands, according to an analysis of the regional accounts conducted by the Association for the Defense of Public Healthcare of the Balearic Islands (ADSPIB). This figure places the weight of outsourcing above the 5.2% recorded in the official statistics of the Ministry of Health for contracts in 2024, because the association's calculation incorporates other items of healthcare assistance using external means. The data are part of the twelfth report on the privatization of healthcare in the autonomous communities, prepared by the Federation of Associations for the Defense of Public Healthcare (FADSP). The study places the Balearic Islands among the territories with the highest healthcare privatization, with 28 points on the index, data similar to those of Catalonia and Madrid.

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.

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 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.

A total of 17,075 patients were on the waiting list for surgical intervention in the Balearic Islands at the close of 2025, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Health within the framework of the National Health System.

A total of 17,075 patients were on the waiting list for surgical intervention in the Balearic Islands at the close of 2025, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Health within the framework of the National Health System.

Clara is on sick leave due to a situation of "systematic harassment." "I clicked. I exploded, and when I got to my GP's office, I couldn't stop crying. I was choking. I think I'd endured too much," she says. In addition to the stress of an "inhumane" way of working, she also suffered several bouts of grief due to miscarriages. "They gave me medication, and I honestly think I needed it," she admits. They put her on hold for an appointment with a social security psychologist. Help arrived months later. Her case exemplifies the shortage of public therapists: at the end of 2023, the Balearic Islands had 71 clinical psychologists, a ratio of just 5.9 professionals per 100,000 inhabitants. The figure is well below the European average (18 per 100,000 inhabitants) and doesn't even come close, for example, to that of Germany, where they have 41 per 100,000 inhabitants.