Relief in Legal Medicine after years of tension due to lack of resources

PalmaThe forensic doctor Marisa Ariño provisionally replaces Consuelo Pérez in the position, who has led the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) for 11 years. Pérez had directed the organization until the Ministry of Justice dismissed her in April. Soon, the competent Ministry will announce the position for free designation, to which any forensic doctor in the State with a minimum of five years of seniority may apply.

After 11 years in leadership positions, the phase of pathologist Consuelo Pérez has come to an end in a context of unease and tension within the IML, due to the growing workload and the lack of resources, both human and infrastructural. In this regard, the director until now assures that she has done everything possible to manage the workload faced by the forensic clinic, which during the summer months can triple without this increase in activity being compensated by additional staff.

Likewise, she admits that the dismissal did not entirely surprise her, because the discrepancies with another official from the General Directorate for the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service were constant, especially due to differences in criteria regarding the reality of the Institute's situation, as confirmed by ARA Balears. Pérez constantly complained about the lack of staff and the non-announcement of positions by the Ministry of Justice, without achieving a change in attitude from Madrid.

Despite this, Pérez states that the relationship with colleagues "was cordial and typical of the normality of a work environment." A point that other sources from the Institute have also confirmed to ARA Balears, who agree in pointing out that this was the usual atmosphere with everyone, except with Javier Alarcón, who was head of the forensic doctors and was dismissed in 2013, after holding the position for eight months. Alarcón was replaced by the forensic doctor Aina Estarellas and, subsequently, the direction fell to Consuelo Pérez.

The precariousness of the Institute of Legal Medicine, however, is not new, according to different informed sources, but rather a situation that has been ongoing for years and whose main causes are the lack of staff, the instability of technicians, population growth, the aging of facilities and machinery, as well as the socioeconomic context of the Balearic Islands.

This is how successive reports published by the Ministry of Justice record it, as the 2024 report literally reflects: “The current year has required a great deal of expert and valuation activity, an additional effort on the part of all members of the group of colleagues working in this service, with constant modifications of the medical staff, with the incorporation of permanent staff in the absence of interim staff and the stabilization of positions, without being able to avoid the activity, already disproportionate in itself due to the activity ratio”. In fact, this situation is not exclusive to the Balearic Islands, as the situation in other institutes dependent on Justice, such as Badajoz and the Canary Islands, is similar.

However, even though Marisa Ariño is now provisionally in charge of the organization, it is most likely that she will continue in the position. Another of the problems facing the Institute is the lack of staff, as most of the medical staff, civil servants of the Ministry of Justice, prefer, as explained by different voices from the organization, to opt for positions on the Peninsula rather than in the Balearic Islands due to the rising cost of housing.