The Nursing director of Son Espases resigns due to disagreements with the manager

PalmaThe Nursing Director of Son Espases, Natalia Vallés, submitted her resignation from the position this Thursday due to disagreements with the hospital manager, Cristina Granados. The departure opens a new rift within the center's leadership, following the resignation of the Director of Management and General Services, José Antonio Visedo, and the workplace harassment complaint filed by the former Head of Communication, Sabrina Vidal.

In the letter with which she communicated the decision to the intermediate positions that reported to her, Vallés maintains, however, that she is leaving the position for “strictly personal” reasons, because she will move her residence to another autonomous community. The director, until now, expressly requests that the resignation not “be used to make other types of interpretations.” The IB-Salut also maintains this version.

Sources familiar with the situation confirm, however, that behind the departure is the deterioration of the relationship with Granados, a version also confirmed by Última Hora and Diario de Mallorca. Vallés thus leaves the Nursing management after more than two and a half years in the position and amidst the crisis that the management team of the Balearic Islands' reference hospital is going through.

In her letter, Vallés explains that she has decided to undertake a new professional stage in another city. She also conveys her gratitude to the professionals with whom she has worked and makes “a special mention to the entire management team of the Son Espases administration, which with its effort and dedication has helped to promote the proposed projects.”

A leadership marked by departures

The resignation comes just two weeks after José Antonio Visedo communicated his wish to leave the Management and General Services direction, after a year and a half in the position. His departure already put the focus on the existing tensions within the management team of Son Espases.

To these two departures, the conflict opened by the public denunciation of Sabrina Vidal is added, who defined herself as a “survivor of the management” and recounted having suffered humiliations during her time as the center's Head of Communication.

Vidal explained that in the weekly meetings she had come to hear expressions such as “you shut up, you have no idea” and that, during the management team's Christmas photo, they told her: “Not you, go away”. The journalist assured that these situations had caused her anxiety attacks, that she had needed psychological attention and that she had been on sick leave for two months. First, she requested a transfer to Son Llàtzer and finally she left the IB-Salut.

The former Head of Communication pointed directly at Granados and maintained that the health organization knew about the situation. As proof, she recalled that she had requested a change of center and that the Health Service had granted it to her.

Health maintains its support for Granados

Vidal's statements came after the director general of the IB-Salut, Javier Ureña, assured that at no time had he considered dismissing the manager of Son Espases. Ureña defended Cristina Granados's trajectory and her continuity at the head of the hospital.

“We have a manager with a lot of knowledge and experience; she has worked in many hospitals,” he stated. The director general also assured that former colleagues and subordinates of Granados spoke of her in a “very constructive” way, with good memories and with the feeling of having learned by her side.

Ureña did acknowledge that at Son Espases there had been “some departures,” but remarked that it is the hospital with the largest management team in the Balearic Islands and that some of the professionals who had left the center were not formally managers.

“There have been departures, some proposed by the management and others completely attributable to personal circumstances that, obviously, we respect,” he argued. He also pointed out that managing a center with more than 6,000 professionals, a high budget, and numerous services “can generate situations of tension.”

In relation to Vidal's case, Ureña denied that the IB-Salut had received any complaint through internal channels or through the Occupational Risk Prevention Service, although he admitted that there had been “technical disagreements in the professional sphere.” According to his version, the organization offered her the possibility of changing centers and Vidal continued working at Son Llàtzer until she decided to leave the Health service.

Vidal replied that the investigation would have depended on the manager herself. According to what she explained, she had been told that the appropriate action was to constitute an investigation group, but it was up to Granados to lead it or appoint the person responsible. “It is a perverse system,” she denounced.

Without explanations from the manager

The controversy reached the Son Espases personnel board this week. The workers' representation refused to approve a document condemning the alleged harassment because the proposal presented by Satse did not obtain the necessary majority.

Granados did not attend the extraordinary meeting. The IB-Salut had previously communicated that the manager would not participate because it considered that it was not appropriate to address a case that was not known to have been reported through the established channels and that affected a worker who was no longer part of the Son Espases staff. The board, therefore, was also unable to demand explanations from her.

The new resignation leaves an executive leadership that Salut continues to defend even more weakened. Vallés is leaving officially invoking personal reasons, but her departure adds to a succession of resignations and conflicts that have placed Granados' management under growing pressure.