Palma’s Son Espases University Hospital has suspended all scheduled surgical activity due to the new ‘collapse’ that, according to trade unions, is affecting the emergency department. Sources at the Balearic health service IbSalut have told Europa Press that only urgent or oncological surgical procedures will be carried out. The Health Service estimates that on Thursday there are at least 75 patients awaiting hospital admission, many of them elderly people with chronic decompensated conditions.
This type of patient, the sources explained, usually requires a longer than average stay and more intensive care. In order to resolve this saturation, the hospital has decided to halt all scheduled surgical activity and to speed up both the complementary tests for patients awaiting admission and discharges. All available beds, the sources have assured, are open and Son Espases will continue to treat all patients who are referred to it as it is the reference hospital for the Balearics.
Both the UGT and USAE unions have publicly denounced the new ‘collapse’ of the Son Espases emergency department. The former union estimated that 77 patients were awaiting admission and claimed that one woman had been waiting for more than 90 hours. For UGT, the repeated occurrence of this situation shows that the measures adopted so far by IbSalut, such as the contingency plan to deal with peaks in demand for care, ‘are not effective and do not respond to the reality experienced by both patients and professionals’.
This has led to patients being placed on stretchers in areas where they are not normally expected to be, including passageways and spaces where there are usually chairs in waiting rooms, due to the lack of space and available beds. This situation, the union has pointed out, creates ‘problems of safety, dignity and quality of care’, as well as increasing the physical and emotional strain on healthcare professionals.
USAE has criticised the fact that, due to this ‘collapse’ in emergency services, ‘for the first time in history, Son Espases is only admitting non-referable emergencies, such as strokes’. The union has estimated that there are more than 70 patients awaiting admission, some with more than 80 hours of waiting time, and has assured that there are no free beds left in the ICU.
According to USAE, this situation is spreading to other hospitals in Mallorca. In Manacor, for example, 11 of the 14 cubicles are already occupied, nine of the 12 beds in the observation area are occupied, and there are no beds available in the critical care unit. At Son Llàtzer University Hospital, there are 28 patients waiting, 15 in triage, 18 awaiting admission and four awaiting cubicles. In the paediatric unit, there are three patients waiting to be assessed.
The union has blamed this situation on ‘a lack of foresight’ in implementing the IbSalut waiting list plan, which has led to an increase in surgical activity and 100% occupancy of admission beds. They have also criticised the fact that at Son Llàtzer, for example, contingency plans have not been accompanied by an increase in staffing levels, causing ‘stress and anxiety’ among professionals and preventing them from providing adequate care to citizens.