Staff of Nursing and Physiotherapy gathered at the doors of the Sant Antoni health centre yesterday to demand an end to the precariousness and deterioration of Primary Care. A concentration that had been called at national level and which, they assured, will be followed by new mobilizations also in hospital care. If they are not listened to, the union does not rule out going on strike.

The spokesperson of the union in the Pitiusas, Veronica Leon, spoke forcefully and insisted on the need to take care of a group that is the gateway for patients to health care. Therefore, she criticized that it is not acceptable that, in health centers such as Portmany, “there are nurses who have 4,000 patients, when the national average per nurse in Primary Care is 2,200”. León recalled that home users and emergencies, without forgetting all the positive covid patients  of this sixth wave, around 12,000. In this regard, she pointed out that there are nurses who voluntarily extend their working day, some by up to two hours per day, because they do not want to leave their patients unattended.

Fleeing of nurses

Satse indicated that in 2021 “more than 300 nurses left the Balearic Islands”; in the case of Ibiza, “50 in just one month and none have arrived”. Some of the ones who left, they explained, were interim nurses. They estimate that on the island there are about 800 professionals in the field and estimate that 31 more would have to be hired and, even so, the staffing levels “would be tight”. León acknowledged that, in recent weeks, contracts have been extended and more interims have been offered, “but the minimum services are still not covered because we are entitled to vacations, sick leave and reductions in working hours”. In one year, 1,700 positions have been stabilized in the Balearic Islands, a hundred of them in Ibiza, but “we have to maintain this and have more staff to cover everything that comes this summer”. For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.