Patients affected by the doctors’ strike in the Balearic Islands have begun to complain to the association Consumers and Users of the Balearic Islands (Consubal) that IbSalut is not automatically rescheduling cancelled appointments, which is causing delays of more than a month in healthcare, especially in Primary Care.
As reported by Consubal in a statement, many people have expressed their anger and indignation at the lack of reorganization of the consultations suspended during the days of stoppage, a situation that, in some cases, has lasted for more than four weeks without users having received a new appointment by the public health service.
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New doctors’ strike in Ibiza? Unions accuse Health of breaking the negotiation of the Framework Statute
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Health strike leaves more than 1,300 appointments unattended in Ibiza and Formentera in four days
Primary Care, the main focus of the problem
IbSalut has explained that primary care appointments cancelled due to the strike are not rescheduled ex officio, since, as they are individual consultations, it must be the patients themselves who reapply for them. This circumstance would be at the origin of many of the complaints received by the consumer association.
The same sources have pointed out that the coincidence with the Christmas holidays is causing that many of the new appointments are being granted two or three weeks in advance, which increases the perception of delay among users affected by the health strike.
Hospital consultations and surgeries, yes rescheduled
IbSalut has specified, however, that hospital consultations, diagnostic tests and surgical interventions that had to be canceled as a result of the medical strike are being rescheduled, a process that is being developed progressively in the hospitals of the archipelago.
In this area, the impact of unemployment is now forcing a significant part of the healthcare activity to be rearranged, especially in centers with high healthcare pressure, where both first visits and scheduled check-ups and treatments are concentrated.
Ibiza and Formentera, among the areas most affected by cancellations
In the case of Ibiza and Formentera, the situation takes on special relevance due to the high number of appointments suspended during the four days of health strike held between December 9 and 12. According to provisional data from the Health Service, 1,355 Primary Care consultations could not be attended in the Pitiusas for reasons beyond the patients’ control.
The impact was constant throughout the four days, with between 295 and 362 appointments cancelled each day, which is evidence of the continued impact of the strike on the health centers of both islands and anticipates added difficulties in absorbing the activity accumulated in the following weeks.
The Can Misses Hospital concentrates a large part of the impact of the
At the hospital level, the Can Misses Hospital suffered a significant reduction in its healthcare activity, with 973 outpatient and surgical procedures suspended during the days of the strike, including outpatient consultations, diagnostic tests, radiology and scheduled surgery.
Most of these cancellations correspond to usual diagnostic and follow-up circuits, which will probably force to reschedule an important part of the suspended activity, increasing the pressure on the main hospital of Ibiza. On the other hand, the Hospital de Formentera hardly registered any incidents, with only one outpatient activity not attended on the first day of the stoppage.
Consubal requests rescheduling of cancelled appointments
The president of Consubal, Alfonso Rodríguez, considered it “illogical and absurd” to offer new appointments instead of rescheduling all the cancelled ones, understanding that this practice aggravates delays and especially harms the elderly or patients who need medical follow-up without their situation requiring them to go to the emergency room.
At the regional level, according to data provided by the president of the Government, Marga Prohens, at the last plenary session of the Parliament, the medical strike left about 12,000 consultations cancelled in the Balearic Islands, of which about 6,000 corresponded to Primary Care, the area where most of the complaints are now concentrated.
