The operating theatres at Can Misses Hospital will once again operate in the afternoons in an attempt to reduce the crowded waiting lists, the Balearic Minister of Health, Patricia Gomez, said yesterday on her visit to Ibiza. In other words, what is known in the profession as “peonadas” (overtime) will be reinstated which not only increases the number of operations that are carried out in a day but also allows the health professionals to receive a bonus. “There will be an extraordinary working day ,” said the consellera after highlighting the “work” that the professionals in the islands’ hospitals have been doing throughout the pandemic.
This option can be considered now that anaesthesiologists and other staff in the Can Misses operating rooms have returned to focus on their activity, after spending much of the fourth wave as part of the multidisciplinary teams that monitored the serious and critical covid patients admitted outside the ICU.
However, these extraordinary afternoon shifts will also depend on whether the hospital has enough professionals in the surgical block to do so. The main problem lies with the anaesthesiologists, although the Health Department points out that in July the Consell de Govern approved the hiring of an external company to guarantee the Anaesthesia and Resuscitation service. For the time being, 1.6 million euros have been approved and the specifications for the contract, which will soon be put out to tender, have been drawn up.
The consellera pointed out that patients will be referred to private and subsidised centres in order to reduce waiting lists. Despite this, Gómez acknowledged that not all of these hospitals and clinics will be sufficient to reduce waiting lists.
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