Private clinics will take care of tourists who contract coronavirus in the Balearic Islands, according to Eugenia Carandell, IB-Salut Healthcare Director.
“We are developing an agreement with Private Clinics to serve foreign tourists to provide security to the population and the guests if they are unlucky enough to fall ill,” she said.
Private clinics "have a lot of experience with foreign patients" and it’s also a way to monitor cases.
"They are people whose contacts will have to be tracked later which implies having language skills," said Carandell who revealed that a Covid-19 Centre is being created which will be able to serve tourists in four different languages ”and will be in constant contact with ours.”
The Private Call Centre will track all contacts of patients who are foreign and IB-Salut will follow up with those who are Spanish, ”for instance if there is a waiter affected, we would take care of that case," she explained.
The difference is that residents of the Balearic Islands have a Public Health medical record and tourists do not.
The project is led by the IB-Salut and both Eugenia Carandell and Manuel Palomino, Director of Management & Budgets, who says "we dream that tourism will rise, so it is necessary to anticipate any situation.”
Many of the tourists who travel to the Balearic Islands have their own insurance and may decide to go to a clinic or a public hospital, "but we need to keep it under control if there is an outbreak," explains Palomino.
"Covid-19 is a pathology, we cannot treat it as if it is just a cold."
Under the agreement, any outpatient with symptoms associated with coronavirus will be offered the services of a Private Clinic and be monitored.
"The patient will be taken to the clinic and given a PCR test and if the result is negative they will be allowed to continue with their vacation, but if it is positive they will be given treatment depending on the severity of the symptoms,” says Palomino. “At the same time transport vehicles will be launched to test anyone who has been in contact with them and anyone who tests positive will be removed from their hotel.
If they’re staying in a holiday rental they can be isolated there if the symptoms are not serious, like the family in Minorca.
Public Health coverage is universal and care will be provided even if people don’t have documents or insurance.