"After hours in a hospital gown, they told me they wouldn't operate on me": the ordeal of a patient at Son Espases due to the doctors' strike

PalmThis Wednesday, Maria (a pseudonym) was scheduled for surgery at Son Espases Hospital, but the day ended in frustration and anxiety. Her procedure was postponed due to the doctors' strike, which has led to the cancellation of thousands of appointments and hundreds of operations since it began on Monday. For days, Maria had been organizing herself to get ahead on work and do overtime so that her colleagues wouldn't have to take on what she couldn't do while on leave. "I also took care of preparing the house and doing the shopping because I didn't know how I would be in the days following the operation," she explains. She even gave up her usual activities to rest and be able to get up very early. The day before her surgery, she was supposed to participate in an activity in Calvià that ended at 10:30 p.m. "I didn't go because I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday," she recounts.

Her arrival at the hospital was nerve-wracking. Maria explains that she arrived very early and that the hospital was empty. "I arrived at the hospital at 7:00 a.m. They told me to put on my shirt, and I thought the surgeon would come. The hospital was completely empty, and there was no one in admissions. We only saw nurses when we went up to the ward." "8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. came and went, and when the surgeon finally arrived after three hours, she told me that, due to the right to strike, they wouldn't operate on me," she explains.

The surprise and lack of information have thrown the whole family into disarray. "I don't understand why they can't give us earlier. If they had notified me at 8:00 a.m., my daughter could have reorganized her work and my son could have refocused his day," she complains. "My daughter is a psychologist and has canceled appointments, and my son has also taken time off work to be with me," she adds.

She wasn't notified, but there are professionals at IB-Salut who, disregarding directives from superiors and acting in the best interests of patients, are contacting them to spare them the ordeal of going to the doctor only to be turned away. Another patient explained to ARA Baleares that an appointment with his family doctor had been canceled. "Don't say anything, because we couldn't tell you not to come," he was told.

Nerves and stress

María also had to deal with the administrative issues: she had been put on sick leave and had to go to the health center to get her discharge papers. She had to wait an hour because the center was also understaffed. "It's been a day of nerves, stress, and a lot of disorganization, wondering how the operation would go. You go in scared because it's not your first time having surgery," she admits. "Going into the operating room is emotionally draining. I had a trip planned for Tuesday to visit my sister, and when they told me I was having surgery on Wednesday, I canceled it," she says.

Once all the bureaucratic paperwork was done, reality and calm returned. "When I got home, I slept for an hour. I'd been very worried for three days, thinking about the medication I'll have to take for the rest of my life, how I'll feel afterward, and the general stress of adapting to the situation that will come after the operation," she explains. "The stress doesn't just affect me, but also my husband and my children," she adds. Maria's testimony demonstrates how a strike can disrupt not only a scheduled operation, but also the daily and emotional lives of patients and their families, leaving behind memories of anxiety, disorganization, and anticipatory worry.