[ad_1]
The Santo António Hospital, in Porto, is about to exhaust the capacity of hospital intensive care for seriously ill covid-19 patients and is preparing the opening of other beds with “sacrifice” of operating rooms, the clinical director said this Saturday. José Barros.
“The greatest pressure today is in intensive care. We have already exhausted our capacity. We have 28 beds [dedicadas à covid-19] and 24 for no covid that we have to save. We don’t touch them. For the covid we can go to 32, but this is already with the sacrifice of an otolaryngology and stomatology operating room, “said the clinical director of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto (CHUP), which includes the Hospital de Santo António.
This Saturday there were 115 patients hospitalized with contagion by the new coronavirus in wards, three of whom were children admitted to the Centro Materno Infantil del Norte, a unit that is part of the CHUP. There are 28 patients with covid-19 in intensive care.
“The situation at the Santo António Hospital is worrying (…). It is a rapid progression. Every day we have more patients than the day before and our anguish is not knowing where it is going. We are very close to reaching capacity [máxima em enfermaria]”Said the doctor.
Specialties such as infectious diseases, pulmonology, internal medicine, gastroenterology and general surgery “have already had to sacrifice beds”, but, admitting that “there are no human resources for all this”, José Barros stressed that “hospitals are not only covid care “.
“Sometimes it seems that hospitals only deal with covid. That is not true. Surgeons are available. But we may not have anesthetists. And operating rooms can become intensive care units. That is what limits the surgical activity ”, he explained.
Still on the capacity of hospital admissions in the infirmary, José Barros said that with the “reconfiguration of spaces” could “reach 125 [camas] this weekend and 163 Monday or Tuesday ”.
The clinical director of the Hospital de Santo António also warned that “the profile of the patient that the hospital is receiving now is different [face à primeira vaga]”, Since” practically asymptomatic “patients were hospitalized and” now only patients with respiratory failure “are hospitalized.
“The number of patients is now much higher. If we had to do an internship with the criterion of the first vacancy, we would have hundreds interned, “he said, taking the opportunity to” demystify some messages that may be creating confusion. “
“Contrary to what is said, we have [internados] of all age groups. I admit that they can be found younger because there is more evidence (…). In this second wave, in this hospital, mortality is lower than in the first. And patients are discharged more quickly also because the discharge criteria have been reduced ”, he analyzed.
The CHUP clinical director also described that “the emergency service is reconfigured like never before”, which “wastes much more resources.” It is about the existence of three areas: for admission of patients with a positive test for COVID-19, respiratory area and room for patients who are not COVID patients or who do not present respiratory symptoms.
“For this reason, a specialist who previously worked in all areas and gave an opinion here and there, now cannot. To do this you have to equip, unequip. Force more people and more resources. We already have the reinforcement of people who before, due to the nature of their specialty, were exempt from providing emergency services ”, he described.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
