The Department of Health has decided to universalize vaccination against flu and covid due to the growing impact of the epidemic wave and the low vaccination rates among a large part of the initially susceptible population. But adaptation to the new preventive scenario is progressing slowly, while healthcare pressure in health centers increases and at least two Catalan hospitals have been forced to postpone non-urgent surgical activity to meet the demand for respiratory infections.
On Monday, the Department of Health user portal prevented those under 60 years of age from obtaining an online appointment for vaccines. This obstacle was corrected yesterday, but requests through La Meva Salut or citasalut.cat were not resolved satisfactorily. The system did not offer the possibility of treating the user at their reference primary care center and directed them to the only open population vaccination point, in Lleida, with an appointment starting next week.
By late afternoon, this dysfunction had not been resolved, despite the fact that the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, had acknowledged at noon “some specific incident” and stated that everything was “solved.” The alternative to telematics consists of physically making an appointment at the CAPs, while the department assures that it is resizing the vaccination service to face a supposed increase in demand.
Prevention is one of the three pillars on which health authorities plan to support the fight against the pandemic wave. The other two are the use of masks in health centers to prevent the transmission of viruses and the possibility of recovering automatic sick leave (a system applied during the pandemic) to avoid bureaucratic procedures for family doctors. “Two thirds of the people admitted to hospitals have not been vaccinated, and we still have time,” Balcells warned, at a time when hospitals have activated contingency plans, with measures such as reducing scheduled surgical activity. not urgent “Urgent home hospitalization activity and the number of places in intermediate care devices are also increasing,” the Department says in a statement.
At least two hospitals are in a situation of extreme pressure. The emergency director of the Palamós hospital, Marc Pérez, explained to Costa Brava TV that the center is at maximum capacity, has experienced moments of collapse and has had to paralyze the surgical activity that requires admission. “The teams are working at more than 100%, and if this situation persists it causes wear and tear,” he stated. In Barcelona, ??the great pressure on care due to respiratory viruses has forced, for example, the Hospital del Mar to postpone some non-urgent and non-oncological surgeries.
According to Salut, CUAPs attend to more than 5,000 emergencies daily on average and hospitals, more than 10,000, which represents an increase of 13% and 1.8%, respectively, in the last month. At the same time, the percentage of revenue over visits has grown to 11.8%, two points above the annual average. In primary care, the number of ordinary consultations has increased by 5.8% compared to the first week of last year.
The flu continues to rise, with a high level of transmission and a peak incidence estimated at 344 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than last year. It leads the Catalan ranking of respiratory viruses (38.2%), followed by rhinovirus (15.5%), SARS-CoV-2 (12.6%) and RSV (7.2%), and represents half of infections in the pediatric population. According to data from the infection surveillance service (Sivic), the incidence of covid registered a slight decrease in the first week of the year in Catalonia to stand at 113 cases/100,000 hours, but the number of hospitalizations it causes increases: 794 people admitted to conventional beds (67 more than in the last week of 2023) and 30 to the ICU (6 more).