A nurse at Son Espases Hospital emergency unit has had a punishment of three months unpaid suspension of employment upheld by the Balearic High Court. The health service had applied the sanction because the nurse had not attended to a seven-year-old child who was at risk of bleeding to death.
Evidence was given which suggested that the nurse had not attended to the child because this wasn't her task on the given day. The nurse herself maintained that she had attempted to look after the boy but that data had not been entered into the computer system. This justification and others were dismissed by the court which considered that there was a "breach of the most basic rules of proper and correct functioning of the health service". The court's judgement continued: "There was a lack of logic and of common sense in the face of an extreme emergency involving a young child suffering from a life-threatening haemorrhage."
Separate to this, the CCOO union is to stage a demonstration on 20 December at the IB-Salut health service main office. The protest is against the dismissal of an employee at Son Espases Hospital who was at the top of the list for the union's next elections.
The employee was dismissed for disciplinary reasons on 4 December. The union considers that the hospital's justifications for the dismissal were "a complete nonsense". The "alleged irregularities", the union adds, were not serious or didn't even occur. The union is contemplating legal action, believing that the hospital's management company has engaged in "anti-union behaviour".
Further and "more extensive" protest action is being planned.