The 061 Balearic Islands Emergency Medical Care Service, SAMU061, is 30 years old and this week an anniversary party was held to commemorate the three decades dedicated to medical care at the scene of an accident and to improving mortality rates in serious and critical health processes.

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The event, which took place at the Castell de Bellver, was attended by the president of the Govern, Francina Armengol; the councillor for Health and Consumer Affairs, Patricia Gómez; the director general of the Health Service, Manuel Palomino, and the manager of SAMU061, Eloy Villalba, in addition to numerous professionals who work or have worked in the service during its three decades of existence.

During the gala, an award was presented to 42 workers and former workers of the service who have spent more than 25 years in 061. SAMU061 currently has a total staff of 748 professionals, coverage on the four islands and a wide range of resources that make it the reference service in the coordination and health care of emergencies, emergencies and catastrophes in the Balearic Islands. It responds to all urgent out-of-hospital clinical processes that require complexity due to the critical state of the patient, either individually or in incidents involving multiple victims.

It is also responsible for the reception, classification and medical regulation of the demand received through the 061 telephones and coordinates inter-hospital transfers of critical patients.

It was created in 1992 in the medical emergency coordination centre of the Arquitecte Bennàssar Health Centre in Palma. The centre was managed by a doctor and a telephonist and had three mobile ICUs, one in Palma, another in Inca and the third in Manacor, with a doctor and two medical technicians in each ICU. Now its fleet includes 55 air and land vehicles and advanced life support resources for nurses and paediatricians.

While in 1997 SAMU061 received 144,423 calls, in 2020 there were 786,782, which demonstrates the growth of the service and the attention to the resident and floating population, as well as the increase in human and mobile resources and electromedical technology.