Palma.The figures revealed this week by the health services authorities show that despite the long wait, this is in fact an improvement on last year, when patients waited over 10% longer before they were operated on.
Some 84% of the 16'233 patients currently waiting for treatment need minor surgery, such as operations on bunions and varicose veins, while 441 are waiting for cancer treatment.
On the other hand there are over 48'000 patients waiting for an appointment with a specialist, 13.3% less compared to the same period (first six months of 2013) last year.
On average they are having to wait around 101.2 days to be seen by a doctor as opposed to the 109.2 days they had to wait the previous year.
According to Miquel Tomas, general director of the Balearic Health Service, the reduction in the number of people waiting for an operation this year is down by 8.5% and the time patients have to wait to be seen is a reflection of the policies implemented by the health services last October. The policies were aimed at reducing the waiting times, to maximise the resources of the hospitals and to better organise hospital schedules and so far it seems to be producing exactly that despite the opinion of Vicens Thomas, spokesperson for the opposition Socialists, who described the figures as alarming and unacceptable. Public health is going backwards. Their priority is to save instead of trying to provide a better service, he added.
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