Palma’s Son Espases hospital, which is where patients are referred when the rest of the medical centres are saturated, is attending an average of 400 emergencies a day, according to the president of the Balearic Medical Union (Simebal), Miguel Lázaro.
The overload coincides with the increase in the incidence of influenza, which has doubled in the last two weeks in the Islands, going from 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 118.
Lázaro said that the situation at the hospital is being managed “well” despite the overload because there are no scheduled surgeries and the doctors and nurses have room for manoeuvre. Even so, there are ten patients waiting for a bed, although there are adequate facilities to wait.
“The behaviour of the doctors and healthcare professionals is excellent. Faced with overload they respond as they have always done, showing their faces and adapting as they have always done, even in worse situations,” said the president.