Covid today Italy, “emergency room close to collapse”

The emergency doctors sound the alarm “about the possible collapse” of the first aid system in the face of the increase in Covid cases. About a month ago, it was November 17, the protest in the square in Rome in defense of the first aid, the urgent emergency service and the 118. “From Friuli to Trentino, from Umbria to Molise, in Lazio, Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont the fourth wave Covid is advancing from North to South and with it the accesses to the emergency rooms, a symbolic place of the fight against the pandemic let’s not forget it, the first access point to the hospital. It is advancing in a non-dramatic world, thanks to the vaccine it contains the numbers, but constant, even if there are hospitals where it is difficult to admit patients within 24-36 hours “. This is the alarm from Simeu, the Italian Society of Emergency-Urgency Medicine. “The reality of Covid places us in front of the weaknesses of the system at a very hard price – the doctors remark – we are starting again to fight yet another battle without an adequate army and without the right weapons”. Read also Today most of the hospitalized for Covid are unvaccinated people. “What is dramatic instead – says Beniamino Susi, national manager of relations with the Simeu Regions and director of the emergency department in Civitavecchia-Bracciano – is the impossibility of hospitalization of many non-Covid patients. Normal wards are being converted into Covid departments – sometimes and inevitably even for a few patients – and this cuts the number of beds available for other pathologies. The situation is worsening even in regions that are historically not ‘hot’ from this point of view such as Piedmont and Lombardy. Doctors are tired, fatigued and live a depressing everyday life that day after day becomes more and more unbearable “.” The answers must arrive, now there really is no time – warns Simeu – Today is also the new case of an emergency room that went haywire in Pescara due to an excess of requests for hospitalization in geriatrics. Elderly patients continue to arrive and they are no longer able to welcome them to the point that they have to be diverted i in nearby hospitals “. The system, according to Simeu, “is collapsing: what still needs to happen for it to be realized by who could intervene with urgent and extraordinary measures?” According to Salvatore Manca, Simeu national president, “it is necessary to agree with the Ministry of University and Research so that hospitals become places of training and trainees are sent and integrated into hospital services immediately, if this does not happen, the emergency rooms really risk closing down and this would be a very serious damage to the community “. For this we need “planning, a vision, a willingness to build and allow emergency personnel to do their job well – concludes Simeu – In the meantime, something must be done immediately. Citizens must also help doctors and nurses to cope the shock, to resist or the fourth wave risks being the definitive shock “. Anesthetists also sound the alarm. “We are witnessing an increase in pressure on hospitals with an increase in hospitalizations, we are concerned about the situation in Veneto, Marche and Liguria, and we see that a serious situation remains in Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is not yet a dramatic situation but it must be understanding that the game is still open is not over so we are at the last call to get vaccinated, it is today the extra weapon “, Alessandro Vergallo, national president of the Italian hospital anesthetists (Aaroi-Emac ), taking stock of the situation after the new data from the Covid monitoring of the ISS which recorded an increase in the employment rate in intensive care (8.5%) compared to 7.3% the previous week. “The resurgence of positives was expected – recalls Vergallo – but at the moment we are not witnessing an escalation of hospitalizations and this makes us understand the value of vaccinations. We also wait to understand how the new measures will intervene into force on December 6 “.