“Whoever governs does not have a clear image”

Hospitals in Rome and Lazio under pressure due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Today at 12 o’clock, Romatoday has learned, about 25 ambulances are blocked in the emergency services of Rome and the province, waiting for the hospitalization of patients. Yesterday afternoon there were 60, some of whom stopped for several hours: 12 in the Casilino hospital, 11 in the Pertini hospital, 8 in Sant’Andrea and 6 in the Tor Vergata hospital.

As the number of emergencies increases, Roman hospitals are working to find beds for Covid 19 patients. Yesterday there were 2,032 people hospitalized for this reason, more than 430 more than a week before. More than 17 for intensive care, which in the same period of time went from 158 to 185. The plan is the one collected in black and white in the regional ordinance of October 21 that expanded the structures of the ‘Covid network’ and increased the number of beds. A total of 2,913 beds plus 532 intensive therapies are expected. Figures that have not yet been reached, although, according to what has been learned, the Region is already working to further expand the expected figures. Hospitals are organizing to make room for Covid patients. For example, San Camillo has decided to block ‘elective’ interventions, thus postponing interventions considered non-urgent in time or checking availability in other structures.

“The reconversion of the places announced by the Lazio Region is not a simple operation because it means closing departments and reopening them with Covid patients,” Enrico Gregorini, secretary of the Fp CGIL of Rome and Lazio – Healthcare, tells Romatoday. “The places available today are not enough and in some hospitals it has happened that in rooms intended for common patients, although in separate environments, Covid patients were housed. The situation is critical although, unlike in March when all ordinary activities were suspended, for the moment we are trying to guarantee normal operation as far as possible. How long the system will endure depends on the increasing number of infections. ”

It is not just a matter of space. “Lazio comes from a 10-year-old commissioner and even before the pandemic there was a serious shortage of staff. The efforts made to accelerate recruitment in recent months are not enough, ”Gregorini continues. “We need at least 1,500 nurses and other professional figures such as doctors, but also health social workers. About 2,000 would be needed. We also request that health personnel undergo periodic checks to intercept as many positives as possible. Today, however, staff are stopped only if there has been close contact or if they have symptoms attributable to Covid. ”According to what was learned today in Lazio there are about a thousand health workers infected.

As for Ares 118 to request “fast hiring and speed up the competition of drivers” is the Usb of the Ares 118 health emergency service, which underlines how “current hiring will hardly be enough to cover the billing of the last two years.” For USB, one way to ease the pressure on emergency rooms is to strengthen local services “for all those patients who can be treated at home.” On the contrary, says the press release, the Lazio Region “continues to make proclamations that are currently not reflected in reality and uses hourly surplus personnel instead of hiring. At this rate, the emergency service will not be able to guarantee emergencies or other activities ”.

Just last Friday he had protested in front of the Lazio Region headquarters denouncing that “the government of the Region lacks a clear and transparent image of what is really happening in the Lazio hospitals.” The only “good news”, reads the note issued on Friday after the meeting with the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidency, “is the reactivation of the USCA, the medical units that go directly to the homes of patients of Covid, which arrived today after months of mobilizations and the many complaints that have rained in the region for more leaving. Demonstration, unfortunately late, that those who work in the sector have the skills and ability to find the appropriate solutions to face an increasingly dramatic situation, something that, on the other hand, seems to be lacking in those responsible for governing health “.

Yesterday, the regional secretary of Anaao-Assomed Lazio, the hospital doctors union, Guido Coen Tirelli, who wrote an open letter to the president of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti. In particular, Tirelli speaks of “collapsed public hospitals” with “Covid patients now scattered throughout all medical and surgical departments, without adequate measures to contain the spread of the infection to other patients and healthcare professionals.”