The IB-Salut public health service in the Balearics made special payments of a quarter of a million euros to medical staff last year in an attempt to reduce waiting lists and delays in treatment. This was achieved in that waiting times for surgery were cut by 3.4 days: they are now on average 110.9 days, whereas they had been 114.3 days in 2014. The number of patients waiting for surgery has also been reduced. At the end of last year it was 13,478, which compared with 14,487 at the end of 2014.
The number of patients waiting longer than six months has been reduced by 309, while for cancer patients requiring detection, diagnosis and treatment the average time for completion is now 28.7 days.
The most common surgical needs last year were for cataracts (2,253), removal of skin lesions (1,934), hernias (834), cholecystectomy (695), varicose veins (647).
As of 31 December there were 60,749 patients waiting for an initial consultation, which constituted an increase from the 58,606 at the end of 2014. Nevertheless, the delay was reduced from 102.6 to 88.8 days.
In terms of consultations, the greatest requirements were for ophthalmology (13,677 or 22.5% of the total), trauma and orthopedic surgery (11,868), digestive system (5,900), otolaryngology (head and neck - 4,965) and dermatology (4,583).
X-ray waiting was reduced from a total of 46,155 patients to 43,829 by the end of the year.
Juli Fuster, IB-Salut's director-general, says that the aim is to avoid there being any waits of longer than six months for surgery and more than sixty days to see a consultant.