DRUNK Brit tourists are swamping hospitals at a top holiday hotspot, potentially causing a healthcare crisis.
Health centres in Majorca are facing chaos in emergency rooms, as they are overloaded with admissions relating to assaults, alcohol, and drugs.
The emergencies department at Son Llàtzer Hospital, in Palma, is one of the worse-hit facilities, Majorca Daily Bulletin reports.
According to a hospital source, the number of cases is causing chaos.
The department is full with "many drunk foreigners" and ones who have been involved in fights or taken overdoses.
In Son Llàtzer, as well as the rest of Balearic public hospitals, the demand for emergencies grows between 8 and 10% during the summer.
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In this centre, in particular, this translates into 20 extra cases per day, on average, according to Spanish paper Ultima Hora.
Alcohol poisoning is reported to be the main reason for admission.
President of the Simebal doctors union, Dr Miguel Lázaro, told The Sun Online that demand on emergency services grows by at least ten per cent in the summertime.
However, he added that despite being a chronic spike, it could have been "predictable and preventable".
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He said: "What we experience here every summer is a chronic a situation as it repeats itself every year.
"In the Balearic Islands we have seven hospitals – four in Mallorca, one each in Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera – with excellent professionals and a high quality of care.
"Although the situation is predictable and should be preventable by planning more adequately at the health level, we have three variables that make our summers chaotic.
"Firstly, we have a shortage of approximately 800 doctors in the Islands -500 of those being needed in hospitals alone.
"Secondly, due to our tourist excellence, we make an island that attracts many tourists, not only British but from all over the world.
"That means that there is more demand for care and obviously, this creates tensions in the health system because there also is more demand and more overload on the health personnel.
"And that is why it seems irrational to close hospital beds and the government decides to shut down the plan to transfer patients to private clinics, which not only are of excellent quality, but many tourists who have insurance go there and make things easier for the system."
Dr Lázaro is critical of the closure of beds and the mismanagement of summer staffing, while noting that up to 40% of patients could be treated at primary care emergencies.
On June 15, the Balearic health ministry axed an arrangement implemented during the pandemic, that saw tourists being referred to emergencies at private clinics rather than public hospitals.
The move was made in order to protect Spanish residents from Covid contamination from foreign visitors, as well as not to overload the public health system.
The doctor said that he doesn't fully understand why this agreement was allowed to come to an end, as "it was reasonable and effective, given a shortage of doctors and high demand."
The Spanish government still hasn't given an exact explanation but Dr Lázaro hopes the new Balearic government will bring it back to immediate effect.
He said: "By eliminating a measure that was working, it looks like they don't care.
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"We should learn from what has happened in past summers and implement contingency plans so that this situation would not be an overload for our healthcare professionals and still provide a quality service to every patient who visits or lives in the Islands."
Son Llàtzer Hospital was approached for comment.
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