Date Published: 25/01/2021
ARCHIVED - Murcian hospitals undergo complete re-organisation to cope with covid numbers
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
All non-essential activities are cancelled and staff re-allocated
This weekend hospital admissions due to the coronavirus situation in the Murcia Region reached a tipping point and on Saturday an emergency meeting of the Covid Monitoring Committee, headed up by the regional president, Fernando López Miras and the new regional minister for health, Juan José Pedreño Planes, took the decision to turn over all resources of the health service to trying to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.
The health service will undertake a compete re-organisation due to the “extreme situation” faced by hospitals at the moment, redirecting resources almost exclusively to fighting the pandemic.
This involves the suspension of all non-urgent hospital activity, including surgery, so that only 40% of operating rooms will be allocated for other emergency operations, and 60% of hospital beds will be reserved for Covid patients. The resuscitation units, major outpatient surgery and operating rooms will be dedicated to Covid-19, and the primary care teams will also focus on the pandemic, which is why all possible contact will be telematic and by phone. In this way, up to 350 ICU beds can be created, with the necessary personnel to manage them.
The committee expects this coming week to be critical as the effects of the festive season feed through; although there was a significant rise in new cases immediately after the Three Kings on 6th January, it takes time for the patients infected during the family gatherings which took place around that date to first manifest symptoms, before the contagions then become more serious in those who are susceptible to the virus and develop into severe cases which require hospitalisation.
Some patients require months of hospital treatment once they enter intensive care, hence the concerns about the lack of ICU beds and longer-term allocation of staff and resources.
All ICU beds in the region which are normally used throughout the year are now full and patients are being diverted to spaces prepared for covid patients in alternative wards, such as those normally used for post-surgical care.
In other cases, floors used for other specialities are being turned over for covid use, but as the conditions required for treating covid patients are so specific, and require particular isolation features, this requires a complete re-organisation of the facilities available as well as of human resource.
Yet again, the regional government has requested that residents stay at home and don´t make unnecessary journeys or create any opportunity for contacts.
If you are due to attend a hospital appointment or have a consultation booked with a specialist, please check with the hospital as many, many appointments have been cancelled from this weekend onwards.
Remember, no visiting is permitted in the region’s hospitals and patients are not permitted to attend an appointment with a companion; only one person is allowed to enter the hospitals at a given time.