Health

Patient waiting times on the increase

Patients waiting at the hospital.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma17/07/2019 04:01

At the end of June, 45,984 patients were waiting for an appointment with a specialist. This number represented an increase of 28.9% compared with the same time last year, when there were 35,683 patients on the waiting list. The waiting time had also lengthened - from an average of 27.96 days to 35.5.

With regard to patients waiting for 60 days or more, there was an increase of 146% from 2,792 to 6,872. The number of patients waiting for an operation fell by just under ten per cent from 13,210 to 11,906, but the waiting time for an operation went up to 73.13 days from 72.29. As for patients waiting 180 days or more for an operation, there was a two per cent rise to 627.

At the end of last year, the Balearic government re-established the guarantee decree for waiting times. This applies, for example, to patients waiting for four months or more for operations. In this circumstance, IB-Salut is obliged to offer an alternative, e.g. a private hospital, to its directly managed hospitals. Up to the end of June only eight patients had requested this.