Ibiza landscape.
Not even with the pandemic has the housing problem in the Balearic Islands, it was only less when any non-essential activity was completely paralyzed and the Spanish borders were closed. The obstacle to finding accommodation affects, among others, health professionals who, due to their work or training, must go to the islands. Although the problem is widespread throughout the Balearic Islands, it is in the Pitiusas Islands, Ibiza and Formentera, where it is most evident.
“It is an annual problem, not only in summer”remarks the delegate of the Balearic Medical Union in the Pitiusas, Carlos Rodriguez. As you explain, the population growth in Ibiza in recent times has been 75 percent, while in Formentera it rises to 90 percent. “It’s a big problem because there is little supply of housing and a lot of demand“, details in an interview with Medical Writing.
To this is added that, of all the dwellings, only 23 percent is dedicated to first accommodation, while 28 percent is to invest and 48 percent, almost half, is a second home. Simebal’s delegate knows first-hand what the experience of finding accommodation in the Balearic Islands is like Sausan Sayedwhich arrived in April 2015 and for her “It was an odyssey looking for a flat. They asked me for rents higher than my salary. I didn’t get help from anyone, but in the end i got something half decent“, he reports.
How can access to housing be facilitated?
From Simebal they highlight some of the measures that have been taken in recent years to facilitate doctors’ access to housing, as has been enable twelve rooms of the old Hospital Can Misses, which is part of the current hospital complex. These rooms, to which fourteen more have been addedthey are a temporary accommodation that all health professionals, not just doctors, who come to work in Ibiza, even if they are not residents, can benefit from it.
As Simebal’s spokesmen point out, only one person can stay in each room, so they cannot be accompanied by relatives, and it’s at zero cost “so they can start living here and can look for a home”. In this process, Rodríguez considers that this initiative is “interesting and attractive” and that “in the long run they all end up finding housing”.
In this line, Tony Pelliceralso a delegate of Simebal in Ibiza, values the measure of enabling rooms in the hospital “It was our proposal” and asks the Ministry of Health and Consum “imaginative solutions”. The main claim is to have the additional complement of compensation for residence and that Ibiza and Formentera be declared places of difficult coverage. By compensation for residence“we ask for the same that they are charging in Formentera or in the small Canary Islands”, while in the workplace they demand “redistribute workloads”since the workload of doctors in Ibiza is higher than the average for the Peninsula, 2,200 patients compared to 1,400 per doctor.
Rodríguez also asks the resident doctors, shortly before finishing his residency in Ibiza, “have a permanent job offer and are considering filing an opposition hereso that they stay and retain their loyalty, in addition to the loyalty payment”. Regarding the MIRs who are trained in the Pitiusas, Sayed considers that “it would be interesting if they had some bonus that would help them pay for housing”, since their salary is less and the problem of finding accommodation is greater. 95 percent of medical residentsunless they are Ibizan, they end up sharing a house.
What are the tricks to find accommodation?
From when Sayed arrived in Ibiza seven years ago until now, the doctors have created some mechanisms that also facilitate access to accommodation. That is why newcomers they are urged to contact the primary care and hospital management to receive information of some vacant flats.
In the Official College of Physicians of the Balearic Islands they also have a species of bag of flats for rent and Rodríguez stresses that there is “many individuals who prefer to hire a doctor with a fixed contract than tourists even offering accommodations with a price slightly lower than the market price. It is very difficult to arrive and settle down, but if you are interested in developing your life here, in the end you get a home“, he concludes.
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