Mallorca: 85,000 health services suspended in waits row

Mallorca’s health chief says 85,000 healthcare procedures have already been suspended as a national doctors’ strike is set to begin on 28 October. In Palma’s Parliament on Tuesday, the clash centred on waiting lists for operations and specialist appointments. Health Minister Manuela García and MÉS per Mallorca MP Marta Carrió gave sharply different accounts of what is driving the delays.

García said cutting waiting lists was now in the hands of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, accusing him of seeking to undermine public healthcare. She also attacked Spain’s Health Minister, Mónica García, over the disputed Estatuto Marco, saying it lacked an economic assessment, early-retirement provisions and dialogue with doctors.

The minister insisted the Balearic government still treats waiting lists as a priority. Despite population growth, she said people now wait ten days less for a specialist appointment and 20 days less for an operation.

Carrió rejected the strike as an explanation for the figures. She said waiting times rose across every category between 2024 and 2025, before doctors had taken strike action.

She held Cristina Granados, manager of Son Espases Hospital in Palma, responsible for the situation and called for her dismissal. Since the PP and President Prohens took office, Carrió said, more patients had been left waiting and for longer.

Topics: Strikes · Health · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com