Health management in Ibiza and Formentera once again confronted the Government and the opposition on Tuesday, but this time the debate was overshadowed by a serious accusation: the Councilor for Health, Manuela García, denounced that the Socialist deputy Irantzu Fernández exposed personal information of a patient who died in Ibiza after falling from a wall.
“Their shamelessness knows no bounds. Using deaths for political purposes is indecent. “The councilor stated forcefully during the parliamentary session.
A clash that goes beyond health care management
Fernandez had again questioned the situation of the Health Area of Ibiza and Formentera, asking Garcia “when will he accept” that the Govern manages “ineffectively” the health of Ibiza and Formentera. The deputy recalled that 22 senior health officials recently signed a letter denouncing mismanagement and warned of the lack of specialists, including “two and a half oncologists” on the island.
But the intervention of the socialist derived, according to the councilor, in something even more serious: the exposure of personal details of a fatal case that shocked the island. Garcia criticized the deputy for using private information about the patient to reinforce her political criticism.
Garcia defends his management and accuses the socialist of “looking for headlines”.
The councilor defended that the management in the Health Area “is not inefficient, it is very good management“, insisting that the Govern has recovered and even improved services “after a legislature in which the flight of professionals was constant”. According to García, the socialist deputy “does not want to talk about management, but about headlines”.
However, the councilor focused her reply on the ethical issue: publicly denouncing the airing of personal data of a deceased person, something that could violate the privacy of the family and that, she stressed, should not be part of the political debate.
Health care debate overshadowed by ethical controversy
The intervention left in the background the discussion about resources, professionals and care load in Ibiza and Formentera. What was left on the table was an ethical and political gap: to what extent is it legitimate to use personal cases -and especially a death- to denounce structural problems in healthcare?
The minister closed her speech by reminding the audience that certain lines should not be crossed in parliament. “Using deaths for political purposes is indecent,” she repeated, putting an end to a debate that ended up moving away from the state of healthcare to the limits of political discourse.
