Health argues that a nurse can direct "any healthcare center" and is considering appealing the TSJIB ruling

PalmThe IB-Salut is considering filing an appeal against the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSIB) which orders the dismissal of the coordinating nurse of the Manacor health center. The high court accepted the appeal from the medical union Simebal. "Nurses are fully qualified to direct any health center," defended the Minister of Health Manuela García, in the plenary session of Parliament, after the PSIB deputy and former minister, Patricia Gómez, asked her about the controversy generated by this sentence. "They are an essential part of any health center, key to ensuring the quality, efficiency, and humanization of care. Leadership must be based on skills, knowledge, experience, and management capacity. Currently, there are two nurses in strategic positions: at Son Llàtzer and at SAMU 061. I want to be clear: a basic health area must be directed by the professional with the best skills to do so. This is not determined by professional category. Is that clear?", said the minister.

The socialist has called on the councilor to take measures before May 12 to prevent the dismissal of the director. "What do you plan to do? Do not blame the world for the inefficiency of the Ministry," she said. García explained that the legal services are analyzing the sentence and studying the possibility of filing an appeal. In parallel, she added that state-level regulations that “do not respond to today's challenges” must be modified and updated.

The sentence annuls the appointment made in 2019, which had placed a nurse at the head of the management of the basic health area. This decision had been maintained for several years with the support of the center's team and within the framework of the primary care organizational model. The court, however, considers that the functions associated with this type of management include responsibilities that the regulations link to the medical profession.

Nurses, suitable

The case has reopened the debate on which professional profile should lead primary care centers. The nursing collective emphasizes that the direction of these devices is above all a task of coordination, team organization, and care management, and therefore, should be based on competencies, experience, and management capacity rather than on the original degree.

Along these lines, the Official College of Nurses of the Balearic Islands (COIBA) has defended on several occasions the role of nursing in health management and its capacity to assume leadership responsibilities within the health system. According to this view, limiting leadership based exclusively on profession could detract from the flexibility and organizational efficiency of the system.

For their part, the recurring medical entities, such as Simebal and the College of Physicians, maintain that current regulations establish that certain clinical supervision and care responsibility functions must correspond to medical professionals, and that this separation of roles is necessary to guarantee the safety and coherence of the healthcare model.