Palma.The controversy over the death of a Senegalese immigrant who died from tuberculosis and did not have a medical card is not dying down.
Yesterday, opposition parties called for the Balearic Minister for Health, Marti Sansaloni, to resign while a number of members of various African immigrant association in the Balearics descended on parliament to ask for explanations as to why Alpha Pam died.
The associations also called for a meeting with the Minister for Health because they want to know exactly what happened to Alpha Pam and also push ahead with their fight for universal public health care for everybody in the Balearics. For the time being, Sansaloni is sticking to his guns and says that he has no intention of resigning, unless it is eventually proved that the correct processes were not followed.
The opposition parties are claiming that because the victim did not have a residents permit, his medical card had been revoked.
The Minister hit back in yesterday's parliamentary session explaining that in exceptional circumstances, illegal immigrants will be treated and that a full investigation has been opened into the death of Alpha Pam because he had been treated twice at his local medical centre and once at Inca Hospital which is where his condition was diagnosed.
Socialist MP Antoni Dieguez accused the government of practicing medical apartheid.