What is this story of ICUs that are selling out in Switzerland?



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In Switzerland, a month after the introduction of new national regulations to contain the coronavirus epidemic, the situation remains dire, but with some signs of improvement. The number of new daily infections has started to decline in recent weeks and the worrying thing, in the very short term, seems to be the availability of places in intensive care. In recent days, news has been circulating about the saturation of intensive care rooms, where the most seriously ill patients with COVID-19 receive treatment, but it seems that in part that news arose from a misunderstanding about exactly how many places are available and how many. are. can still be created.

In mid-October, the situation in Switzerland was very worrying. In ten days, it had gone from a few hundred new coronavirus cases a day to 2,000 to 3,000 new cases, and the federal government had not taken common steps to contain the epidemic. Wearing masks, even indoors, was optional, as were many other social distancing rules that had been mandatory for months in many other countries.

The worsening situation had finally pushed the government to adopt some common rules, including the obligation to wear a mask indoors in public places and some rules for gatherings of more than 15 people (such as the obligation to register names and addresses of the participants). Only 10 days later, when the daily infections had exceeded 10,000, the government had introduced other measures, such as the closure of clubs and discos, the suspension of face-to-face classes for universities and new limits for gyms and sports centers.

Starting in early November, infections began to gradually decrease, returning to the levels of mid-October: the new cases registered were 2,264 on Sunday 15, 6,208 on Monday 16 and 3,315 on Tuesday 17, however. , the levels of the new ones have been high. hospitalizations, both in intensive care units and in other departments.

Switzerland has 972 “certified” intensive care sites, which meet government rules for the best standard of care, both in terms of equipment and staff availability. Between late October and early November, the task force that is advising the government on how to handle the epidemic had repeatedly said that if the growth in cases did not slow down, intensive care positions would run out in a few weeks. At noon Tuesday, Andreas Stettbacher, chairman of the federal body that manages Swiss medical services, said the certified intensive care places were full, after the last 34 available that morning were filled.

However, the government had repeatedly explained that Swiss hospitals could make new intensive care places available, something as has happened in almost all countries affected by the epidemic, where departments and staff have adapted to manage the more severe cases of COVID-19. It is not clear exactly how many more “non-certified” ICU places could be created in Swiss hospitals, but on Tuesday Stettbacher explained that 240 were available at the time, and on other occasions there was talk of a maximum limit of 1,400 places in the country. .

The fact that there are other intensive care centers in Swiss hospitals does not, of course, mean that the situation is not very serious and difficult to handle. In the western regions of Switzerland, where the number of infections has been highest in recent weeks, hospitals have had to suspend several of their normal and non-urgent activities. Hospitals in the Geneva region, one of the hardest hit by the epidemic, are among those that have reached their capacity first in intensive care units and have had to request the transfer of some patients to other parts of the country. Hospitals in the Zurich area and in other German-speaking cantons have been less affected by the epidemic and have continued to function as usual in recent weeks.

Cooperation between the different cantons of the federation has been a topic that has been talked about a lot in recent weeks, due to some friction in the common management of the epidemic and some reports of hospitals that had refused to accept patients with COVID- 19 from others. hospitals. More generally, the absence of common rules, the great autonomy of the cantons (especially in health matters) and the lack of supervision have led to talk of the limits that the Swiss federation may have in managing serious health crises.



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