The general director of the Health Service, Javier Ureña, said Wednesday that IbSalut will start in “a few months” a training plan for more GSAIB technicians to obtain the type C license, required to drive the new ambulances purchased by the Govern, all of them over 3,500 kilos in weight.
The announcement was made in the Health Commission of the Parliament, where Ureña defended that the purchase was made “consciously and premeditated” because they were “the best vehicles on the market”, despite the fact that only 33% of the GSAIB staff is currently qualified to drive them.
Ureña detailed that in 2026 some 80 professionals will be trained to take the C license exam, which is still not enough to cover all the workers who would need it.
Regarding the modifications introduced in the vehicles -such as removing a seat or a stretcher- he guaranteed that “they are small and will not be perceived by the users”.
Ibiza: seven drivers for three ramped ambulances
The announcement that drivers will be trained drivers comes the same day on which the new fleet of ambulances has begun to circulate in Ibiza and Formentera. It includes 38 vehicles in the largest of the pitiusas -19 urgent transport and 19 scheduled transport, while Formentera operates with four ambulances, three for emergency and one for non-urgent transport.
The delegate pitiuso UGT, Vicente Nadal Ballesteros, confirmed Wednesday to La Voz de Ibiza that on the island there are only seven drivers with license C, and they are the ones who must assume the management of the three ambulances with hydraulic ramp currently available.
“There are seven drivers here with C. There are three with ramps. The work overload will be on those workers,” said the union representative, who emphasizes that the rest of the units will only be able to attend to ambulatory patients or transport stretchers, but not wheelchairs.
Nadal added that in Ibiza the problem will be structural as long as the number of authorized workers does not increase: “It will depend on the will of the workers, who are not obliged, and that they offer us a bonus to be able to solve it as soon as possible”.
UGT demands compensation: “They will have to pay the cost of the card and the effective time”.
The union insists that the workers who already have the C license obtained it at their own expense, and that they should be compensated for both the expense and the time spent in obtaining it:
“Hopefully many people will do it. They will have to pay the actual time and the cost of the C. The course is usually a maximum of eight people. If they reach an agreement with Traffic it may be…,” Nadal explained.
The delegate also warned that Mallorca will face an added problem: “There they demand a bonus. If they don’t offer it, it will be difficult for many to sign up”.
Opposition points out “lack of foresight” in the Govern
During the parliamentary session, PSIB, MÉS and Unidas Podemos accused the Government of improvisation, of not foreseeing the lack of C cards and of generating an operational problem that has forced the lightening of recently acquired vehicles.
The PSIB demanded information on the termination of the contract of the previous concessionaire, which could imply a loss of up to 10 million euros in European funds.
MÉS warned that the pace of the RPT of the GSAIB is generating blockages in the creation of interim employment agencies, while United Podemos questioned that the company awarded the contract “neither knew the staff nor its human resources”.
