Late visits and interventions are omitted. Wait times for exams increase

Fear of going to the hospital or the GP’s office and catching the coronavirus and the first scheduled surgeries that skip again, as happened in April when the COVID-19 had monopolized the activity of many hospitals, with screening activity, especially in the field of oncology, which again runs the risk of being blocked. Unique effect: a Rome That’s in the Lazio people have returned, as during the period of confinement, to not be treated or unable to heal themselves with disastrous effects on the health of citizens. By choice or for reasons beyond your control, you change little.

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THE COMPLAINT

Professor Pierluigi Marini, director of the surgical unit of the San Camillo hospital denounces: «In Rome, after the confinement, oncological surgery has resumed between 60 and 65 percent. The elective call to 25-30 percent. There are also delays in emergency surgeries: we are 92% of the operations compared to last year ». Suspicious cases, positive Covid-19 also confirmed among health professionals begin to undermine the correct activity of many hospitals with main repercussions for planned surgical interventions, starting with orthopedic and cardiological ones. “In the past, everything that was postponed from the interventionist point of view was postponed and we will do it again, it is a path already marked out, we should not be fortune-tellers – explains the president of the Italian Society for Infectious Diseases and Tor Vergata Massimo’s primary Andreoni – the spread of the virus will return to the starting point with the only difference being that it is not concentrated in a few regions of Italy but hospitals are filling up quickly again ”. In San Giovanni, for example, it is not a Covid hospital but a Multiple Trauma Hub due to the treatment of patients from other hospitals, the schedule of planned surgical operations in orthopedics is already undergoing changes.

THE OPERATIONS

In Sant’Eugenio a few days ago due to a suspected case of Covid, the computed tomography of a patient was delayed because the environment had to be sanitized and recovered. And then there is the diagnostic chapter. Adolfo Pagnanelli, director of the Emergency Medicine Operational Unit at the Casalino Polyclinic explains: «Not only here, accesses have dropped by 20 percent compared to last year. We are not yet at the level of the lockdown period, but people are starting to move away from the emergency room. The true emergency concerns outpatient screenings and visits for the chronically ill and those with disabling illnesses, including cancer. The blockade left about a million visits to the Roman health system to recover. The Lazio Region has also created a special number for the Cup to provide these services. “But – says Antonio Magi, president of the Order of Doctors of Rome – not all responded to the appeal of the Region and those visits never took place.”

WAIT TIME

The current waiting times in Roman structures for critical examinations, especially in the tumor field – colonoscopy, abdominal ultrasound or head and neck computed tomography – register worrying delays. How concerning is the number of bookings for visits across Lazio: in the last month there were 39,000 in the potential audience of six million Lazio residents. Some facilities would be understaffed by major specialists like orthopedics. In other hospitals, such as Santa Lucía, the suspected cases of Covid would have led the management to close some floors. “And then,” adds Pier Luigi Bartoletti, head of the capital’s general practitioners, “there are also difficulties in accessing services: we understand that Recup continues to consider diagnostic visits as a priority for urgent briefings.” For others it is expected. For this reason, the Region is also preparing to ask general practitioners to swab their patients, also to go out into the field to ensure greater coverage in home care.

Last update: October 10 at 00:05


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