The PSIB-PSOE Balearic socialist party has blamed the regional government for the ‘chaos’ and ‘collapse’ on Balearic emergency wards, which are under increased pressure due to the flu. Socialist MP Patricia Gómez warned on Saturday in a press release that the situation of hospital ‘chaos’ reported by public health experts, trade unions and patients in all hospitals on the islands ‘will continue to grow and become more problematic if the Regional Ministry of Health does not provide immediate solutions’.
Gómez denounced that, ‘as professionals have warned, this strain of flu is causing more hospital admissions and more complications, but, meanwhile, the Prohens government is not taking measures to combat this situation’. The MP has rejected this ‘lack of planning’, when ‘the Regional Ministry should have made a forecast during the holidays, putting as many staff as possible to work, just as it should have made the maximum number of beds available’.
According to Gómez, it was foreseeable that the wave affecting the rest of the country would sooner or later reach the Balearics, so preventive measures should have been put in place, such as hiring more professionals and increasing the availability of beds. Instead, the same unions have reported ‘chaos and collapse in hospital emergency services’, a fact that, according to Gómez, will have an even more negative impact on the pressure on health centres, as the number of patients with respiratory symptoms is growing.
Gómez also denied that there has been a reduction in the incidence of flu. ‘What is happening,’ she said, ‘is that during the holidays, sentinel doctors also take holidays and, therefore, fewer flu tests are being carried out.’ The Socialist MP also denounced ‘a complete lack of foresight on the part of the Regional Ministry’ in the face of a “desperate” situation and the fact that ‘it does not even have a contingency plan to deal with the current situation’.
‘On the contrary,’ Gómez continued, ‘services are getting worse and worse in the face of pressure on the health system.’ ‘Today, there are 122 patients waiting to be admitted to A&E, 64 of them in Son Espases alone,’ she warned, pointing out that ‘on the 3 January, for example, there were half that number.’ In addition, ‘in recent days, visits have exceeded 500 patients per day since 5 January.’ And yet, she criticised, ‘the only solution adopted during the month of December by the Regional Ministry was to suspend all surgical activity, when waiting lists are worse than ever.’
‘All the indicators for waiting lists have worsened in recent months, and this will continue to be the case if they suspend surgical procedures,’ warned the MP, who described the situation of public health in the Balearics as ‘absolutely absurd’, with the regional government of Prohens which, in her opinion, ‘only improvises and lacks planning’, ‘privatises services’ and ‘harms health, as well as the good work of professionals’.
Finally, the socialist MP pointed out that ‘there are currently more than 16,600 patients awaiting surgery’. In addition, ‘the average waiting time has increased by 14 days in the last year, reaching an average of 122 days,’ she added. And, ‘there are also 3,800 patients who have been waiting for six months or more,’ she concluded.