08/07/2025
Ibiza may shine brightly at night, but its emergency services are flashing red. On the island, ambulance services are sounding the alarm: calls from clubs are skyrocketing, often to help partygoers having a bad trip. Enough is enough, insists José Manuel Maroto, president of the local health services union, in the newspaper El Diario. According to him, “it is inconceivable that clubs that rake in millions do not cover the cost of this service, which is overwhelming emergency rooms to the detriment of residents.”
The clubs do have nurses, but the ambulances remain public. As a result, the island’s 161,000 residents have to cope with a system under pressure... to absorb the demand generated by 3.6 million annual tourists. Since the 1980s, Ibiza has become a clubbing mecca—with icons such as Amnesia and Pacha—but also the scene of widespread drug trafficking. More than a million doses of M**A were seized in one raid, and 58 deaths have been recorded in six years. The party has a price, which others pay.
