Ibiza’s famous super-clubs are overwhelming the Spanish party island’s health services, with at least a quarter of ambulances every night diverted to help clubbers suffering from drugs and alcohol, a paramedics union has claimed.
Clubs like Amnesia, UNVRS, and Pacha attract thousands of people every night, relying on the island’s ambulance service to take clubbers to one of Ibiza’s two hospitals if they fall unwell.
But with many clubbers needing medical assistance after taking drugs and alcohol, the union says these super-clubs are putting the public health service under unbearable pressure and is calling on them to pay for private ambulances instead.
The public ambulance service is already stretched thin because authorities cannot recruit enough staff due to tourism driving up the cost of living on the island. That has left some public workers unable to afford accommodation.
José Manuel Maroto, president of the USAE union, which represents ambulance staff on the island, said that every night at least 25 per cent of cases handled by crews come from the night clubs.
“Of these cases, about 90 per cent involve drugs. The rest are other illnesses. But here we have clubs which attract thousands of people every night during the season and they are putting more pressure on our crews,” he told The i Paper.
Only one club, DC10, employs private ambulance crews to take sick clubbers for treatment at the island’s two hospitals, one of which is public and the other private.
“What we are saying is if these clubs are making so much money, they should pay for a private ambulance service to take patients to hospital and relieve the strain on the public health service, which is saturated,” Mr Maroto said.
“We all pay for our public health system but these clubs make millions and they are putting further pressure on our system. Sometimes our crews have to put up with aggression from the people they go to treat because they are not in a good state.”
Mr Maroto said the cost of living, pushed up by the demand for tourist flats, meant some ambulance workers, police and other public servants had to live in cars or caravans.
The island, which is home to 160,000 people, received 3.6 million tourists last year. Britons were the largest group by nationality.
“We should have 150 ambulance crew to cover the holiday season, but we only have 136 because we could not attract extra people to come to Ibiza because it is such an expensive place to live,” Mr Maroto said.
The i Paper reported last month on the divided island where the rich stay in luxurious mansions and party at the super-clubs while many locals are forced to live in shanty towns or caravan parks because the cost of housing is so high.
The USAE union is calling on the Ibiza Consell, the island’s governing body, to ask the super-clubs to pay for private ambulances.
The i Paper contacted the nightclubs for comment but did not receive a response.
