Over Christmas, the flu put the city’s emergency medical services to the test. During the holiday season (December 23 to January 7), Miranda Este Health Center’s Continuing Care Point (PAC) alone treated 2,113 patients, an average of 132 patients per day.
That number is much higher than usual, even on holidays when services are available 24 hours a day, because primary care doctors are not scheduling consultations, and much higher than the provincial figures Sacyl manages for patients. area.
In fact, the average number of people in the Burgos health district on December 31 was close to 27, while on January 4 it was 36.7; on the same day, the number in the district remained at 33 and 43. This evolution, while trending upward, still leaves the numbers well below Miranda. In the city, for example, the PAC treated 157 patients on Christmas Day and 120 on Sunday the 7th.
Certainly, the curve appears to be starting to fall, and this is already reflected in the pressure on care at the centre, although demand for care remains high, with patients accumulating wait times of up to three hours and queuing outside centres. health center due to lack of space to accommodate all those coming.
«What we are seeing are flu and many viral symptoms. There were a lot of people in the emergency room throughout December, and over Christmas, with the flu outbreak, the pressure was even greater. We entered a pandemic a week before Christmas and the numbers have been rising. Now, over the next two weeks, we hope that they will stabilize and start to taper off,” said Miranda Oeste coordinator Miguel Ángel Solórzano.
The need for assistance at Santiago Apostol Emergency Services remains very high, with 108 people served on Friday the 4th, according to Sacyl, a number that is within the average for all Christmas Days and exceeds almost every Christmas Day A hundred. Of course, the vast majority of people are discharged home after being checked by a doctor. On the day detailed by the Ministry of Health, 7.4% of admissions were admitted to the wards, the lowest proportion among the 14 public hospitals in the region, where the average was close to 20%.
In fact, yesterday Santiago Apostol was one of the centers with the lowest occupancy rates. The localization rate was 69% with 71 patients. Only Santos Reyes de Aranda is in a more comfortable situation, with a bed coverage of 54% and a capacity of 64 people. The occupancy rate in all hospitals in Castile and Leon is 75%, with 5,207 patients admitted.
No mandatory wearing of masks
Hours before the Ministry of Health announced the mandatory use of masks in the health centers of the autonomous region, the Ministry of Health noted that the use of masks will continue to be used in Castile and Leon as an advisory and non-mandatory measure in hospitals, centers of health and social health or pharmacies, because They feel that its implementation is unreasonable; understand that this is not a mechanism to cut off or change epidemiological transmission, but to protect vulnerable groups unless you have symptoms.
Furthermore, he assured that “there has been no breakdown” in any of the health services in Castile and León and that “the incidence and utilization of services is high but there have never been admissions, surgical interventions or diagnostic tests.” ».
The order came a day before a meeting between ministers and parliamentarians and opened up another front between the government and the autonomous region.