The Health Department of Ibiza and Formentera managed a total of 9,289 patient transfers and accompanying persons outside the Pitiusas for health care in 2021, according to data from the activity report. These more than 9,200 referrals represent a decrease of 3.4% in the number of users who had to leave the Pitiusas to receive health care compared to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, when this figure was 9,622. These transfers are the non-urgent, that is, those that are processed from the service located at the entrance of the hospital, which seeks plane or boat tickets for patients who must travel.
Mallorca sees majority of health care transfers
The vast majority of transfers have been to Mallorca, mainly to the reference hospital of the Balearic Islands, Son Espases. Last year, these trips totaled 8,358, of which 7,896 were users from Ibiza and 462 from Formentera.
10% of the total number of health care transfers last year were to the Peninsula, a total of 931 (885 from Ibiza and 46 from Formentera), according to the management. This percentage has also been reduced with respect to 2019, when healthcare transfers outside the Comunitat accounted for 11.1% of the total. That is, in two years, the proportion of patients and companions transferred to the Peninsula has been reduced by more than one point.
44% of the transfers in 2021 correspond to companions of patients, a very similar percentage to that recorded two years earlier, when they represented 43.8% of the total of those managed by the Pitiusa Health Department.
In total numbers, last year 7,896 transfers were processed from Ibiza to Mallorca (4,439 of patients and 3,457 of companions), while from Formentera there were 462 (268 and 194). From Ibiza to hospitals on the mainland 461 patient referrals were managed, accompanied by 424 relatives or friends (a total of 885), while from Formentera to the mainland 46 people traveled for health reasons: 24 patients with 22 companions. All these transfers have been reduced in the last two years except one, which has increased: the number of health transfers from Formentera to Mallorca. It has gone from 374 in 2019 to 462 this past year, an increase of 23.5%.
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