Hospitals in the province of Alicante now double ICU beds to cope with the avalanche of critical patients
In just one week the number of seriously ill patients has risen by 38% and all health centers have enabled extra admission places
A pressure cooker. It is the best metaphor to describe the situation that is experienced in hospitals in the province of Alicante in general and very particularly in Intensive Care Units, with a constant increase in admissions due to coronavirus . These services have doubled their bed capacity, according to figures provided by the Valencian Society of Intensive Medicine. It must be taken into account that the ICUs of practically all the hospitals in the province are already exclusively dedicated to covidAnd all health centers have allocated additional beds to accommodate both coronavirus patients and other patients who continue to need intensive care due to strokes, heart attacks or accidents. These beds that have been enabled are being attended by anesthetists.
« The situation is catastrophic. All hospitals have already deployed their contingency plans and spaces have already been doubled, but these are beginning to fall short, ”warns José María Núñez , member of the Valencian Society of Intensive Medicine.
In just one week, the number of patients admitted for covid in these units has increased by 38% and according to Health yesterday there were 193 covid patients in critical condition. In the hospital floors, the same situation, with an increase of 57% in patients hospitalized for covid and with 1,431 people admitted at this time due to the disease.
Regarding the situation by hospitals, in the General Hospital of Alicante part of the operating rooms of one of the surgical blocks have been prepared, after the resuscitation areas and children's operating rooms have already been occupied.
In the hospital of Sant Joan they have also started using the operating rooms due to the increase in critically ill patients. Yesterday there were 23 covid patients in this situation. In this health center the lack of space is being a real headache. Yesterday the assembly hall was opened as a space to enter 16 non-covid patients. The ER pre-admission area, the family rest rooms and the radiotherapy waiting room are also being used. The health center, which is already almost exclusively dedicated to covid, hopes to start referring mild coronavirus patients to the field hospital today in order to ease the pressure on care.
Health pulls traumatologists and ophthalmologists to attend to the sick at the field hospital
In Elda the medical ICU has 10 patients with covid and in the Anesthesiology ICU 19. Despite the increase in critical cases in the last two weeks, there is still room for capacity in the Anesthesiology ICU. There are 10 free beds for covid patients and 6 for patients with other types of pathologies.
The care pressure at the Vega Baja Hospital has forced the hospital center to adapt a sixth unit to accommodate those infected with coronavirus and to refer patients to other hospital centers to avoid collapse. There are already 152 people admitted with covid in the regional hospital, 22 of them in the Intensive Care Unit and 130 in the plant. Two weeks ago there were 50 people admitted to the plant, in the two wings that were then enabled, but the increase in income in the last seven days has been exponential, and another four units have had to be opened for covid patients.
In the General Hospital of Elche , the pressure also continues to increase and has gone from 118 people admitted to 225 in seven days and from 11 patients to 33 in the ICU.
Finally, the field hospital was treating the first five covid patients yesterday after it opened on Sunday. All of them are in mild condition and had previously been admitted to the General Hospital of Alicante. In the next few hours it is expected that other health centers will begin to refer patients to this hospital, which has a capacity for 240 admitted and in which 80 beds have been enabled for the moment.
To attend to this facility, the General Hospital of Alicante, which is the one who manages it, has resorted to doctors from the so-called surgical specialties, such as traumatologists and ophthalmologists, to stand guard. These specialists have been released due to the suspension of operations and consultations that are not urgent.
