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The focus returns to intensive care. Yesterday they received 30 more people infected by the coronavirus. In all Italy there are 420 seriously ill patients. A low number when compared to the more than 1,300 cases that only Lombardy had to deal with on some dramatic days in March. But the comparison with last spring is not enough. There are other data to consider to understand if the Regions are ready to face the second wave. Intensive care units are the departments dedicated to patients in critical condition, both due to Covid-19 and other pathologies or traumas. In the most hectic moments of the emergency, the most affected Regions opened beds for this type of patients whenever possible. After the peak everyone had to draw up a plan to expand the departments. At the national level, an increase of 3,553 places has been planned compared to the initial 5,179, reported the Ministry of Health. To these are added another 4,225 of semi-intensive therapy, half of which can be converted to critically ill patients. To create more beds you need machinery, jobs, spaces, time. And to date, while infections increase, the maxi-plan is not complete.
38 percent of the scheduled beds have been activated, the ministry says., without providing regional details: Italians have 6,529 resuscitation beds at their disposal. We are far from the goal of 8,732. The tender to start the works was launched by the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency Domenico Arcuri at the beginning of October and will close today at 2:00 p.m. The forecast to see workers at work by the end of the month. How many intensive beds are occupied today and how much space is there if cases increase rapidly? Altems, the Higher School of Economics and Health Systems Management of the Catholic University, in the last report calculates this percentage both on the total of available pre-Covid beds and on the places we will have in the future. the Messenger Service did the same with yesterday’s data. At the national level, the saturation is 7.4 percent. Seven out of 100 critically ill beds are occupied by infected people. The others are not all free: in part they welcome people with other pathologies.
Regional photography is more difficult. We have created a fork, without knowing at what point in each hospital the intensive care unit is expanded, explains Americo Cicchetti, director of Altems and coordinator of the report. Among the worst figures is that of Valle d’Aosta, with a 30 percent saturation taking into account pre-emergency beds (90 percent in March). It is followed by Campania, with 18.2 percent: worse than spring when the epidemic had not overwhelmed it. In third position Sardinia with 16% of the beds occupied, compared to 11 seven months ago. In fourth place Liguria, with 14.4 percent, still far from the 81 percent of the past. Lombardy, a land racked by the first wave, which went from 122 percent (with beds created from scratch to meet requests) to 5.6 yesterday, Piedmont from 86 to 7.3, Veneto from 48 to 4.9. Some areas remain at zero: the case of Molise, Basilicata, the autonomous province of Trento. However, Cicchetti invites us to go further. The increase in places must be such that it allows the treatment of both Covid and non-Covid patients. Otherwise, there is a risk of blocking the rest of the health activity again. Starting next week, the university’s monitoring will link virus admissions only to scheduled extra beds.
The first to look closely at the data are the hosts of these departments.: anesthesiologists-resuscitators. Yesterday, during the online round table of the Siaarti (Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Intensive Care and Intensive Care) the experts shared what they see in the room. We oscillate between 7 and 15 percent of hospitalized patients that end up in intensive care – sums up Vice President Antonello Giarratano -. The disease has not changed, but those infected are younger, so they are less likely to get worse and follow-up is more effective. The professor says he is concerned about the large number of asymptomatic people: that is why we do not know who to defend ourselves against. And the trend of infections increases. It must be stopped now with stricter measures. We were late for the expansion of intensive care posts. We had a cicada summer.
There is another point that is close to your heart. With the decree Calabria had the opportunity for fourth and fifth year postgraduates to be hired and work in their specialty field. Some regions have taken action, others have settled for Covid’s emergency contracts. Therefore, there is a risk that resuscitation residents end up in other departments. We need a ministry audit.
October 12, 2020 (change October 12, 2020 | 00:27)
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