Second wave of coronavirus, hospitals in difficulty. Closed rooms to create Covid beds

Sprout like mushrooms lanes dedicated to Covid-19 (here the bulletin of November 2) hundreds of Beds are subtracted from ordinary hospitalizations to make way for the new wave. We are in war against an invisible enemy and subjects affected by non-communicable diseases (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.) are forced to do a Step back. In the sectors reserved for general medicine critical occupancy threshold (40%) was exceeded, data from the Higher Institute of Health, with an escalation of hospitalizations that went from 7,131 to 12,006 in seven days. “They were whole departments converted due to the pandemic – he said Luigi sinigaglia, President of the Italian Society of Rheumatology – we understand the serious moment, we do everything possible to collaborate, but at the same time we are afraid of finding ourselves in a situation similar to the one we experienced last spring ”.

“We work closely with health directions, resuscitators, infectious diseases – specified for his part Lorenzo Leogrande, President of the Italian Association of Clinical Engineers – from all over Italy they ask us to readjust normal beds in Covid stations. Tools for surveillance, respiration and drug infusion. It is one organizational effort Importantly, the hospital has to respond quickly to real needs. “Even operating rooms have been caught up in the search for space. The sterile areas reserved for surgery are reduced and transformed into intensive care in record time.

But what levels has it reached charge of the infected, consequence of the end of the confinement? “L ‘Sacco Hospital of Milan has activated more than 300 beds for the hospitalization of Covid – explained Massimo galli, primary specialist in infectious diseases, former president Simit – we have already converted everything that could be converted, to get to the current situation, and it probably won’t be enough. Orthopedics is no longer an orthopedic, but a department of Covid, to understand. Everything we have opened has already been filled. “

Transformations are on the agenda in different regions of italy. “Currently just over half of intensive care beds are occupied, the prime minister specified Giuseppe Conte in the courtroom of the Chamber – I remember that at the beginning of the emergency there were 5,179 places, we worked to activate another 3,370 places and we reached the current 9,052. Commissioner Arcuri has other new fans available that will be distributed up to 10,841. We register a growth worrying overcrowding in the general and sub-intensive medicine wards. “Some examples? At the Santa Maria Annunziata hospital in Florence (Bagno a Ripoli) all medications are authorized for patients with Covid. Torino The Region must convert 16 hospitals to accommodate people affected by the Sars-Cov-2 virus: Piedmont is the third region of new infections, after Lombardy me Campania. In Friuli, another 200 dedicated beds are needed, a good half of the Palmanova hospital is currently occupied by Covid-19.

Meanwhile, calls to move the takeover of the less severe patients, taking over hospitals and entrusting usca (flying squads) and family doctors with the task of monitoring therapies at home. Concerns in particular about heart patients: “During the first wave of the pandemic, hospitalizations for heart attacks and strokes were cut in half for fear of contagion, and especially in the South – he said Ciro Indolfi, President of Sic, the Italian Society of Cardiology – the cardiology clinics have been closed and the wards emptied or converted. If the number of infected people continues to rise, an even greater impact of the pandemic on cardiovascular disease is expected compared to last March. “