Ibiza hospital management denies collapse in Emergency Department during Easter

The Ibiza and Formentera Health Area has denied that there was a situation of overcrowding in the Emergency Department at Hospital Can Misses during Easter. The statement follows a press release from the USAE (Union of Healthcare Technicians), which claimed there were “five public holidays without sufficient staff”.

Hospital management maintains that emergency cases during this period actually decreased and highlights that it has extended the summer reinforcement period by two months, from 8 April to 31 October.

On 31 March, the special winter contingency plan ended — a measure designed to handle increased admissions due to respiratory viruses. This left a one-week gap before the arrival of summer reinforcements, coinciding with the Easter holidays, which, according to USAE spokesperson Rosa Planells, placed emergency nursing staff under “stress”.

“During Easter, as everyone saw, there were many people on the island and more patients in Emergency. Staff are stressed and burned out”, Planells said.

The union insists that reinforcements should mean a permanent increase in staffing levels, something they have long demanded. “In Emergency we have five nurses and four healthcare assistants (TCAE) per shift. With winter reinforcements, there was one additional nurse and one assistant per shift, which allowed staff to cope better even during peak times”, Planells explained.

“We had five public holidays without sufficient staff, despite requesting reinforcements”, she added, noting that they even sent a “letter of distress”.

Management: a temporary bottleneck

This contrasts with data provided by management, which describes the situation as a “temporary bottleneck” related to hospital discharges.

“Normally, after a weekend — especially a long one like Easter — the first working day involves processing many discharges”, they explained. On Tuesday 7 April, 12 patients were waiting for admission to wards at Hospital Can Misses; ten received admission orders that same day and two the previous day.

“During this time, they remained in beds in Emergency, which slightly overloaded the service”, management acknowledged. However, they stress that this is a common situation after weekends and that it was resolved during the day. “By Thursday, beds were already available again”, they added.

Verónica León, spokesperson for the SATSE (Nursing Union), confirmed that peaks were expected: “We knew this would happen because the winter contingency plan had just ended and the summer reinforcement was not initially scheduled until May”.

Fewer emergency cases

During the week without reinforcements, management reports fewer emergency visits than the quarterly average. While the first quarter saw an average of 163 cases per day, during Easter (from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday) the daily average dropped to 142 — a 13% decrease.

Figures are also lower than last year: so far this year, 14,145 emergencies have been treated, compared to 14,511 during the same period in 2025 — a 2.52% decrease.

“Resources are allocated based on activity, and in this case, there was less demand”, management stated. “There is usually a gap between winter and summer reinforcements, but this year we have brought them forward”.

Extended summer reinforcements

Summer reinforcements in Emergency will be extended by two months this year. Unlike last year, when they ran from 1 May to the end of September, they began on 8 April and will continue until 31 October.

The reinforcement includes five additional nurses, five healthcare assistants and four doctors — three joining in April and one in early May.

“During summer, we also reinforce laboratory services with two specialist technicians from 1 May to 30 September”, the Health Area added.

Regarding doctors, the Simebal (Balearic Medical Union) welcomes the new hires but notes that staffing levels are still below authorised levels.

“We cannot speak of reinforcement when the baseline staffing is not fully covered”, said spokesperson David Fernández.

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