Once again in January, respiratory problems, as well as the rise of the flu or Covid cases, among others, are straining the capital’s emergency services, both hospitals and outpatient clinics.
To such an extent, that the La Paz University Hospital has been forced to suspend this week “as a specific measure” some non-urgent general surgeries to provide coverage for the flu, whose curve is increasing these first days of the year 2024.
“These measures are exceptional and are contemplated in the winter plan of the Community of Madrid,” explains a spokesperson for the hospital complex. from Madrid. “Work is being carried out normally in the 54 operating rooms for both scheduled and urgent operations. The operations that have been delayed are, for example, bunions, which are carried out in the afternoon in special programs to reduce waiting lists” . These types of interventions are carried out in the afternoons most of the time and the professionals who practice them are paid overtime as “peonadas”, the same sources point out.
From the hospital unions, they had been announcing for several days that there were problems in the emergency room and that some surgical interventions could be suspended.
Last week, the operating room supervisor, who goes by the initials V.Q., issued a statement to the different units, to which La Vanguardia has had access, which reflects that during this week, a couple of days, Thursday and Friday , operating rooms for general surgeries are closed due to lack of beds.
The notification that has reached the different heads of nursing services and departments reads as follows: “Due to the lack of hospital beds due to the flu peak, we are forced to suspend the extraordinary activity of General Surgery next week, “both on Thursday and Friday. If there is more news, we will inform you.”
Regarding the emergencies in La Paz, last week there were days when 800 people were treated and about 150 patients were waiting for a bed, but this week about 55 patients are being hospitalized on average. This situation is also repeated in other public hospitals. For example, the emergency health workers at the Alcalá hospital have already filed a complaint with the court on duty due to the lack of personnel.
Another hospital that is very overwhelmed these days is October 12. According to union sources, the emergency service is treating about 800 patients a day, when in previous years the influx was about 600. According to the same sources “the problem is not only respiratory infections, but the main cause is the lack of primary care, with a very serious deficit of professionals. The chronic patient is worse controlled and arrives in worse conditions and the mild patient who should be absorbed by primary care finds no other resource than to go to hospital emergencies.
From the Mats union they denounce that in 2019, of every 100 euros of the budget of the Community of Madrid, 42.52 euros were dedicated to public health, a figure that has now been reduced to 36.9 euros.
Given this situation in Madrid’s public health system, Más Madrid has requested an extraordinary plenary session in the Madrid Assembly so that the minister of the sector or the president herself, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, can provide explanations for the “collapse of public health care.” In addition, he has presented a parliamentary initiative “to take urgent measures in the face of the peak of infections and protect the health of Madrid residents.” Madrid is one of the communities that has not forced citizens to wear masks in health centers.
