Covid Tuscany, the count of (few) free places in hospitals – Chronicle

Florence, October 29, 2020 – Difficulty breathing grows of Tuscan hospitals while the Coronavirus accelerates. I Beds In addition, they can be obtained by changing the structure of the departments, but it must be done in a very short time. And the health system has sent the first alarms: long waits, ambulances queuing at the emergency room, patients transferred from one city to another. In recent days, inaugurating the pavilion Careggi Covid The president of the Giani Region had announced the achievement of 550 intensive care places in Tuscany, of which about 155 for Covid, and yesterday spoke of reaching even 700: 130 are already occupied. In the non-intensive Covid there are 955 beds, of which 877 are occupied. “The number of beds – they explain in the Region – is constantly updated. It can increase or decrease taking into account the contagion trend ”.

The transformation of a normal department into Covid is neither trivial nor fast. Subtract spaces and resources from other activities. There are 268 Covid beds already activated in the ASL of Northwest Tuscany, 46 of which are in intensive care, 230 occupied (37 in intensive care). The Pisan hospital, between Cisanello and Santa Chiara, has 111 occupied places, of which 95 are ordinary and 16 are between sub-intensive and intensive. In these hours, work is underway to create another 32. Situation under control in Careggi, thanks to the new Covid pavilion with 72 seats (14 intensive and 58 ordinary). Employment is now at 15%, but the makeover of the ordinary is beginning. At the ASL Toscana Centro, in Prato there are 14 patients in intensive care from 20 places, 6 are added in Ponte a Niccheri and 10 in Empoli. In Pistoia 10 places in intensive care and 12 patients already: the 2 more have found places thanks to the reorganization of the hospital. In the southeast of ASL, in the Grosseto hospital 6 hospitalized in intensive care (16 places) and 25 in infectious (out of 32). In Arezzo, 75 in infectious diseases-pulmonology (out of 83) and 12 in intensive care. “There is concern but now the organization exists – says Roberto Monaco, secretary of the National Federation of Medical Orders and president of the Order of Siena -. Covid, however, is bringing up atavistic problems: there is a lack of specialists and an increase in beds. it must be combined with a staff increase. “