The poor state of the 061 ambulances in Ibiza has reached the courts. The professionals of the medical transport have denounced the public company GSAIB, in charge of managing the service in the Balearic Islands, for the deficiencies in the vehicles, especially in the emergency lights, which have an opaque and yellowish illumination.
The trial will be held on April 1 after months of unanswered complaints.
A complaint that has been months in the making
The complaint comes after, in August last year, workers issued a risk communication warning about the state of the lights in the medical vehicles. The report warned that the lack of luminosity in the emergency signals endangered both the professionals and the patients being transported.
Despite assurances at the time that repairs would be carried out immediately, the health workers denounce that the situation remains the same six months later. Given the inaction of the management company, they have decided to take the case to court to demand solutions.
Controversy in the Parliament over the situation of health transport
The conflict has also reached the Balearic Parliament, where the PSOE deputy, Irantzu Fernández, has questioned the Minister of Health, Manuela García, about the lack of response to the demands of health personnel. Fernandez has accused the Govern of not assuming responsibilities, recalling that last week, during the fire in a building in Santa Eulària, Ibiza lacked a logistics vehicle, which complicated the assistance in an event that left one critically injured with severe burns and 30 evicted.
For her part, García defended the management of her department, assuring that they have inherited a “very complicated” situation from the previous legislature. The councilor said that the logistics vehicle has already been restored on the island and accused the PSOE of “destabilizing and fomenting conflict” with data that she considers false.
A structural problem in Ibiza’s ambulances
Beyond the complaint about the defective lights, the problems in Ibiza’s sanitary transport have multiplied in recent years. The councilor acknowledged that when the current government came to power, 061 staff did not have adequate space to rest between shifts and the logistics department was “dismantled”.
As for the state of the vehicles, Garcia announced the call for a new competition that will renew the fleet with 240 new ambulances this year. He also stressed that they have had to deal with a debt of nearly four million euros inherited from the last legislature.
