PALMA
THE Balearics is suffering from an acute shortage of doctors - in particular GPs - a government report revealed yesterday.
According to the State Employment department's quarterly report on regional skills gaps across Spain, it is the Balearics and the Canaries which are having the biggest problems in recruiting GPs.
In general, Spain is apparently facing a shortage of medical specialists in nearly all fields of medicine, but the most serious problem is apparently here in the Balearics where all of the islands are in urgent need of more GPs.
The situation is not going to be helped by the recent rift which has developed between some sections of the local medical profession and the Balearic government over its demands that all medical staff are able to speak Catalan. What is more, the dispute has led to a number of regional health authorities on the mainland offering alternative employment to those medical professionals here in the Balearics who are either unable, or choose not, to meet the local government's Catalan language demands.
RECRUITMENT
Last week, the Balearic Minister for Health, Vicens Thomas, said that the Catalan language requirements will neither have a negative effect on staff levels nor the quality of the services provided by the regional Ib-Salut health service.
But it appears that the local health authority has been suffering recruitment problems since at least the start of the year.
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