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

PalmaThe Nursing Director of Son Espases, Natalia Vallés, submitted her resignation 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 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 be moving 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 lies 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 embark on 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 step down as Director of Management and General Services, after a year and a half in the position. His departure already put the focus on the existing tensions within the management team at Son Espases.

Added to these two losses is the open conflict over the public complaint by Sabrina Vidal, who defined herself as a “survivor of the management” and recounted having suffered humiliations during her time as the center's Communications manager.

Vidal explained that in weekly meetings she had heard expressions such as “you shut up, you have no idea” and that, during the management team's Christmas photo, she was told: “Not you, you get out of here”. The journalist stated 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. She first requested a transfer to Son Llàtzer and finally left the IB-Salut.

The former Communications manager pointed directly to Granados and maintained that the health organization was aware of 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 Department maintains support for Granados

Vidal's statements came after the director general of IB-Salut, Javier Ureña, assured that at no point had he considered dismissing the manager of Son Espases. Ureña defended Cristina Granados' track record 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 the feeling of having learned by her side.

Ureña did acknowledge that there had been “some departures” at Son Espases, but he 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 noted that managing a center with more than 6,000 professionals, a high budget, and numerous services “can generate situations of tension.”

Regarding Vidal's case, Ureña denied that IB-Salut had received any complaints 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 set up 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 staff board this week. The workers' representation refused to approve a condemnation document regarding 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 she considered it inappropriate to address a case that had not been officially reported through 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 a leadership team that Salut continues to defend even more weakened. Vallés is leaving officially citing personal reasons, but his departure adds to a succession of resignations and conflicts that have placed Granados' management under growing pressure.