Hospital emergency departments across Spain are already saturated, a situation health workers had anticipated before the summer, only to get worse, with patient numbers up an average of 10% on the same period last year, and the most complex weeks centered around July 1. between August 15 and August 15.
Pascual Piñera, first vice-president of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (Semes), in an interview with EFE, blamed the situation on heat waves, which favor the decompensation and decompensation of chronic diseases in the elderly. increase in cases. Covid-19, “not a lot of income, but a lot of assistance in the emergency room”.
Another reason why hospital emergency rooms are overloaded, especially in the summer, Pinera said: The situation in primary careDue to the shortage of staff and resources, patients can only land in the emergency room, “this is a convenient, 24-hour service”.
Pinera, director of the emergency department of the Reina Sofia University Hospital in Murcia, explained that the patients who were finally admitted were all “elderly people” aged 75 and over, who suffered from chronic diseases and multiple diseases, and were most affected by the heat wave.
In fact, according to the expert, it is being observed that Urgent care for seniors over 85 is on the rise In summer, there is a ten-year upward trend.
heat increases pressure
Marciano Sánchez Bayle, spokesman for the Federation of Societies for the Defense of Public Health (Fadsp), agrees with Vice-President Semes that the health stress caused by the heatwave is worse this summer than in the previous year,” destabilizing chronic diseases”, such as the rise in COVID-19 cases.
A spokesman for Fadsp warned that “the heat wave is going to get longer and longer”, which will lead to more stress on hospital care during the summer.
Sanchez Bell also mentioned Hospital beds closed at height across Spain The autonomous region of Madrid led the way, with public hospitals seeing a drop of more than 19% between July and August, with a drop of almost 2,500 beds, according to the federation’s calculations.
The spokesman said the situation in Madrid “doesn’t correspond to reality” for a number of reasons, “mainly that fewer people are leaving the community than they were a few years ago and there is less time to go on holiday.”
In short, according to the public health association’s platform, predictions of bed closures this summer have been “exceeded” beyond 2022, and hospital emergency rooms have reached saturation.
Just in Madrid, 31 doctors at the University Hospital of La Paz filed a complaint with the duty judge this week, asking The ‘collapse’ of emergency services.
According to the Red Workers Union, dozens of patients were about to be admitted to the hospital, while 435 beds were closed, “on the pretext of fewer patients in summer.”
This month, the union also condemned the collapse of a pathological anatomy laboratory in La Paz. 11,600 biopsies awaiting analysismany are used to diagnose certain types of cancer.
More Scooter Accidents
However, emergencies are also rife with banal and summer-related ailments such as allergies, sunburn, dehydration, digestive disturbances, gastroenteritis or food poisoning.
Some of the assistance that has drawn attention due to the increase concerns injuries caused by driving scooters.
The use of scooters has become more common as they are rented out on the streets, but accidents involving users using the form of transport without helmets or protective gear have also increased, said Semes first vice president.
This has worried emergency services, who have been warning of the situation for months and are demanding that governments take action.