The Balearic Minister for Health, Manuela García, has criticised the Spanish Government over the forecast that doctors will go on strike again next week to protest against the draft Framework Statute. According to García, the strikes in recent months have led, on certain days, to an increase in the number of patients awaiting beds in the A&E department of Son Espases University Hospital.
‘This is one of the consequences we have to attribute to this strike,’ she told the media at the launch of the Paediatric Transport Unit at Son Espases. Regarding the situation in the hospital’s A&E department, she stated that at 8 pm on Sunday there were ten patients awaiting a bed. ‘Absolute calm,’ she added.
The regional minister lamented that the strike has led to a significant increase in scheduled surgeries, which is causing a ‘very significant’ rise in demand, particularly at Son Espases. ‘The best way to protect the public health service is to end this strike, because it is one of the factors eroding it to the greatest possible extent,’ she noted.
Faced with the prospect of another week of doctors’ strikes – the fourth this year – the regional minister blamed the Minister of Health, Mónica García, claiming that the regional government has its “hands tied”. In her view, it is “obvious” that the minister “has no interest in resolving the situation” and that it has become “the norm” for doctors to go on strike. She therefore called on the minister to ‘take action’ and resolve the conflict.
She warned that the strikes are lengthening waiting lists for consultations, tests and operations. ‘What healthcare system can withstand 27 days of strikes?’ she asked, before once again criticising the central government’s ‘inaction’.