Patients lying in corridors, patients with severe symptoms being treated in chairs, boxes crowded with up to five people, ambulance queues at emergency doors, waiting eight, ten or more hours to drop off or transport users, or process entry into the plant to receive care. ..
It is a quick photo seen in the last few hours, according to health professionals, the Consortium Sanitaire de Terrasa (100 percent public) and other centers – Hospital del Mar, Bellvitage, Moises Brogi, Touli… -, but collapsed, he agrees. . Sources, because of respiratory infections and patient admissions and visits due to viruses such as flu or Covid.
Chairs with five people, treating patients in boxes, days of admission… the reality of Teresa Hospital
The Department of Health removes a lot of ink from that drawing and ensures that the current reality in hospitals and primary care centers is not as chaotic as some professionals paint it. “There is no collapse,” reiterates Francesc Xavier Jimenez, director of the national emergency plan of Catalonia (Planac). “It is true that there is much more activity in the centers and 45% of all viral infections treated are flu, but the system is ready to deal with this situation,” assures Jiménez.
Statements that are far from the perception of health workers who are at the bottom of the valley. “What we are experiencing in the last few hours is reminiscent of the first phase of the Covid epidemic,” says Xavier Leonard, an emergency doctor at the Terrasa Hospital and general secretary of Metjes de Catalunya. The health decline, “which is not very serious because it is widespread and affects other centers,” said Dr. adds Leonard. And what saddens this doctor the most is “how many health authorities do not acknowledge or acknowledge the problem; This situation only shows that the administration has normalized the fact that the patient lies in the hallway for hours, his dignity is lost or the doctors give up due to stress.”
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This contradictory perception of the current reality in health centers due to respiratory infections also has its own war of statistics. Health sources say Vanguard Hospitals such as K Moises Brogy (St. John Despy) reported “up to 205 patients in the emergency room in a single day.” Some of these patients have waited up to seven days to be admitted to the ward. Jimenez justifies these waits (he doesn’t admit they’re usually that long) with the fact that now 60% of emergency room arrivals for respiratory infections are not serious. “So first we have to look at the priorities,” he stresses.
At the Terrasa Hospital, the secretary of Metjes de Catalunya reports, “We have up to 52 patients in the emergency room who, despite not having a room, are pending admission. Accommodating these patients means occupying two floors of the centre. Oversaturation here has forced patients to be referred to other health centres.
Francisco Xavier Jimenez, for his part, handles less alarming figures. A 10% increase in the number of patients in Catalan hospitals in the last month due to flu and Covid outbreaks, says this senior health official. And he adds that the increase in patients “has increased between 2% and 3%” in recent days. So, Jimenez reiterates that healthcare statistics during times of respiratory infections “move within the expected range.”
Xavier Leonard doesn’t share it. “We are fed up because the administration continues to do its homework. And now, with the crisis and primary schools saturated, we have to take heroic measures again, because there is no more time to provide the system with more resources or personnel.” Lorena, secretary of Infermeres de Catalunya, shares this thesis. At Les Courts CAP, Where he works, they have treated up to 80 patients in one morning. “It is humiliating, professionals are asked to make extra efforts that are impossible to achieve,” he criticizes.
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On the other hand, Leonard points out that the stress created by what he calls the “collapse of the system” among professionals is already taking its first toll. “We started hearing about a lot of doctors leaving because of stress,” he says. Francesc Xavier Jimenez admits that these staff are missing, but attributes the loss to workplace flu or covid infections. Here also the opposite poles of the problem do not coincide. Lorena of Infermeres de Catalunya regrets that “this lack of forethought” is the last person harmed is the patient, “then those who pay for it along with the health workers, who are in the front line. A sick person’s discomfort never reaches a politician directly.”
Where everyone agrees is in the forecast that peak visits and revenue have not yet arrived. It is estimated that the emergency and first aid situation is going to be critical in the coming days. It is expected that this upward trend will reverse by January 15 or 20. And it is also a coincidence that the vaccination campaign this fall and winter has failed.
Doctors: Masks in centers
The Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC) proposed yesterday to restore the mandatory use of masks in primary care centers to reduce the spread of flu, covid and other respiratory diseases. SemFYC advocates the tightening of security measures to prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses to people with multiple pathologies and the chronically ill, and recommends re-establishing isolation spaces in health centers, distribution of hydroalcoholic gel and ventilation measures for waiting rooms. In addition, it asks health officials to create awareness among the population about the proper use of health care services and not to go to them unless medical attention is needed.
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