Doctors warn that the situation in public hospitals in the summer "is critical."

PalmPublic hospitals in the Balearic Islands, as usual every summer, are overcrowded. Doctors, led by the Simebal union, denounced the "critical situation" of the emergency services and urged the population to seek primary care first "to avoid unnecessary collapse." They also demanded that the administration provide the necessary human and material resources "to guarantee safe and dignified care."

In a statement, the union laments that "yet another summer" the community's hospital and outpatient emergency services are suffering from "chronic saturation, overloaded care, and a lack of medical personnel." It is thanks to the "dedication, vocation, and sacrifice" of the doctors that Simebal has thanked all the healthcare professionals in the emergency services for their efforts, as well as the SUAPs and "the oversaturated and mistreated primary care system."

Regarding emergency services, the union indicates that the current situation reflects a lack of foresight, strategy, and planning on the part of healthcare management. "Work overload, excessive waiting times, lack of beds, exhausted professionals, and the collapse of the Emergency Department are not new phenomena. They are chronic and recurring problems that, summer after summer, are repeated without the adoption of effective structural measures," they emphasized. Thus, they lament that the Emergency Department has become a new gateway to the healthcare system, "while Primary Care is collapsing due to a lack of resources and professionals." According to the union, nearly 50% of the care that should be handled in Primary Care ends up in the Emergency Department.

Menorca and Ibiza, on the sidelines

Son Espases handles between 450 and 500 emergencies daily and up to 14,000 emergencies per month. Furthermore, during the summer, the number of patients waiting for admission can exceed fifty, and wait times for admission to the ward range between two and three days. "It is unacceptable that there are so many patients waiting for admission," the union stated, adding that this situation "seriously compromises the humanization of care, deteriorates the quality of care, and creates an undignified environment." As for Son Llàtzer, the second largest hospital in Mallorca, it has an 80% saturation rate, handles an average of 300 emergencies daily, and has a wait time of one to three days for admission to the ward. This summer, only one backup staff member has been hired. "No one wants to work in these conditions," they state.

The same is happening, says Simebal, in the regional hospitals of Inca and Manacor, which are also suffering from population growth and a lack of resources. Manacor Hospital handles between 280 and 300 emergencies daily, with 15 or more patients awaiting admission every day. For the moment, Menorca and Ibiza are responding better to the summer saturation because the organizational measures adopted have been different. Menorca has not closed beds, and in both hospitals (Mateu Orfila and Can Misses), waiting times to access the ward do not exceed 24 hours.

"The problems are exacerbated by the shortage of social care beds," explains Simebal, who details that in Mallorca, the summer closure of the Virgen de la Salud Hospital and the chronic overcrowding of the Joan March Hospital further exacerbate the lack of beds for these patients with special needs, which "is incomprehensible." The union explains that inadequately reinforced services are also exacerbated. Furthermore, the pathologies no longer respond to seasonal patterns: along with the multiple traumas and poisonings typical in summer, the cases of elderly patients affected by the heat are increasing.