The Approach Plan includes six measures that will be developed simultaneously to improve the current management of healthcare resources.
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Comprehensive Plan to reduce the number of patients and the time they spend waiting lists
The Regional Ministry of Health has today presented the Plan for a Comprehensive Approach to Waiting Lists with a twofold objective: to reduce the number of patients waiting for a consultation with a specialist or surgery and the time they spend waiting and, at the same time, to increase the efficiency of the healthcare resources available. This Plan is the result of a careful analysis of the situation and the joint work carried out with the territorial management of the Balearic Islands Health Service.
The Plan, which will be implemented starting this week, includes six measures that will be developed simultaneously to improve the current management of healthcare resources, increase healthcare activity in public hospitals and improve efficiency in the referral of patients to subsidised centres.
The six actions are as follows:
- Increase the efficiency of the operating theatres during ordinary working hours by implementing measures to improve surgical performance, which is currently around 80 %. These measures affect all professionals working in the operating theatre, from surgeons and nurses to cleaning staff. The aim is to optimise surgical sessions as much as possible.
- To implement a regular afternoon shift, voluntarily and in those departments that can do so due to staffing levels. This measure will focus especially on outpatient and cabinet activity, although it could also be applied to surgical activity.
- Prioritise overtime for surgical procedures with a waiting period of more than 180 days and specialist consultations with a waiting period of more than 60 days. In this way, overtime will focus on reducing the number of patients waiting the longest.
- Establish management contracts with the services, linked to the achievement of targets for reducing and containing waiting lists and favouring a greater capacity for self-management.
- Refer patients on waiting lists to centres with special agreements (Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and Hospital Creu Roja) with criteria of priority and waiting time.
- To analyse and control the referral of patients to contracted centres by the contract to avoid duplication and re-entries.
The Regional Minister of Health, Manuela García, accompanied by the Director General of the Health Service, Javier Ureña, and the Director of Healthcare, Raúl Lara, presented this Plan for a Comprehensive Approach to Waiting Lists to reverse the current situation and reduce waiting times and the number of patients awaiting a consultation with a specialist or surgery. Manuela García stated that despite the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Shock Plan announced last year, there has been no reduction in waiting lists.
18.62% increase in patients awaiting specialist consultation
Over the last year, the number of patients on the waiting list has increased, especially those waiting for a consultation with a specialist. Thus, as of 31 October 2023, 80,837 patients are awaiting a consultation with a specialist, of whom 34,521 are waiting more than 60 days, and the average delay is 81 days. These figures represent an increase on those recorded in the same period last year, when there were 68,148 patients, of whom 24,497 were waiting more than 60 days and the delay stood at 64.89 days.
The waiting list for a consultation with a specialist by the hospital:
Hospital centres
Total
60 days
delay
Son Espases University Hospital
20.194
6.807
57
Son Llàtzer Hospital
14.791
5.178
57
Manacor Hospital
8.282
1.956
45
Hospital Comarcal de Inca
11.986
5.741
99
Mateu Orfila Hospital
6.893
2.732
81
Can Misses Hospital
18.143
11.859
131
Formentera Hospital
548
270
95
TOTAL
80.837
3.080
125
Adult orthopaedic surgery and traumatology, dermatology, ophthalmology, rehabilitation and otorhinolaryngology are the services with the highest number of patients pending consultation with a specialist, accounting for 60.5% of the total.
The number of patients awaiting surgery has increased by 2.79%.
As for the surgical waiting list, as of 31 October 2023, there are 14,531 patients pending surgery in Health Service hospitals, of whom 3,069 are waiting more than 180 days for surgery and the average delay is 124.71 days. Although the increase is not as high as the increase in the waiting list for consultations, the figures are slightly higher than last year, when there were 14,137 patients, of whom 3,065 were waiting more than 60 days and the average delay was 125.24 days.
The waiting list for surgery by the hospital:
Hospital centres
Total
180 days
delay
Son Espases University Hospital
4.803
1.114
132
Son Llàtzer Hospital
3.051
684
132
Manacor Hospital
1.775
488
140
Hospital Comarcal de Inca
1.290
127
87
Mateu Orfila Hospital
1.639
7
77
Can Misses Hospital
1.948
658
153
Formentera Hospital
28
2
75
TOTAL
14.534
3.080
125
Five care services account for 80.3% of the total number of patients pending surgery. These are general and digestive surgery, orthopaedic surgery and traumatology for adults, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology and urology.
Oncological surgeries are operated on in an average of 19 days.
On 31 October, the delay for oncological surgeries stood at 19 days, less than the recommended maximum of 30 days.
Similarly, analysis of the data shows that 95% of patients awaiting surgery are waiting for a priority 2 or 3 operation, i.e. a procedure indicated as non-serious.
Surgical and consultation activity is still below pre-pandemic figures
Both surgical activity and specialist consultation activity have not yet reached pre-COVID-19 pandemic figures.
In the first ten months of the year, hospitals performed 42,476 surgeries compared with 45,891 in the same period of 2019, a decrease of 7.4%.
Similarly, specialist consultation activity has not yet recovered either. Thus, in the first ten months of 2019, 383,863 first consultations were attended and in the same period of this year, 357,716. This is a decrease of 6.8%.