“The 18 million euros invested throughout 2022 by the Servei Balear de Salut to reduce the waiting lists have hardly been noticed.” This is how blunt the Patient Ombudsman is in its annual report on Balearic public health. The document details that last year a total of 42 complaints about the health care received in the Pitiusas islands were managed, with 40 of them corresponding to Ibiza and another two to Formentera. These 42 cases represent two out of ten of those processed from the Balearic Islands, from where they have received a total of 188 (140 correspond to Mallorca and 6 to Menorca). Six of these almost 190 cases processed resulted in death, according to the report.
Health care complaints on downward trend
The Patient Ombudsman recognizes in its analysis that the number of cases corresponding to the Comunitat has been reduced with respect to the previous year by 6.5%. In addition, it stresses that “the Balearic Community has once again recorded the lowest number of health care complaints in the last decade”. That is, for the second consecutive year there has been a reduction in the number of cases processed by this association. It should be noted that these are the complaints that reach this entity, not the total number of claims related to healthcare in the Pitiusas Islands nor the number of claims processed through official channels. Thus, it continues, over the last ten years there is an average of 232 complaints per year, which means that the figure for 2022 is 44 cases below that average for the decade.
The report, which analyzes the health care data for the last year community by community, points out that Can Misses Hospital ranks third by number of cases managed in the Balearic Islands, behind Son Espases and Son Llà tzer, both in Mallorca. Likewise, and although it does not offer detailed data by island or by center, it lists the five specialties and services with the most complaints across all the islands as follows: waiting lists, general surgery, traumatology, emergencies and gynecology and obstetrics.