Naples, stretcher emergency at the Ospedale del Mare: patients treated even on chairs

Difficult situation in the emergency room ofHospital of the Sea in Naples. In the health center located in Ponticelli, in fact, the stretchers are all occupied and the stretchers with the sick are positioned in every corner of the structure.

In fact, in recent days there has been a boom in accesses. Over the weekend, 16 people were waiting for triage and another 60 visiting. All in an area that, at least in theory, could hold just 14 patients. This time Covid-19 has nothing to do with it: they are people who have arrived at the hospital for the most diverse pathologies, in some cases even very serious. Someone is forced to wait their turn on chairs where they receive their first assistance.

This high influx of patients has sent the hospital into crisis. A not exactly encouraging picture if we take into account that even the Neapolitan capital, like other Italian cities, is struggling with the coronavirus emergency. The complicated situation is also underlined by nurses who made no secret of being alarmed. “What will happen when the”third wave “? It is not clear how we will be able to manage the large number of patients that could arrive at the hospital “, were the words of the health worker relaunched by Republic.

Another worker explained that it is the obligation to slow down the moving procedures in the departments tampons with the average wait of four days for results. Currently the emergency room area, with yellow and red codes, does not have a Covid area, but only an acceptance (formerly white codes) where the quick test is carried out. The positives are moved to emergency medicine and, if necessary, to the modular Covid Hospital which is located in the hospital parking lot. “Think that for each Covid positive patient it takes about an hour, between examination and sanitation of the CT scan”, said an employee of the hospital. If in the next few days accesses were to increase, a traffic jam could occur such that it will be difficult to guarantee a separation between those affected by the virus and those not.

According to the bulletin released yesterday byAsl Napoli 1 Center, 10 Covid patients are admitted to the hospital in intensive care (16 total places), 8 in sub-intensive care (all places occupied) and 34 (out of 39) in hospital. In consideration of this, the general manager of the ASL, Ciro Verdoliva, will start an Audit, in practice a sort of verification, in the emergency room of the Ospedale del Mare. In a note sent to the hospital it was indicated that “to identify opportunities for improvement and introduce them into professional practice aimed at a critical and systematic analysis of the quality of medical care”. The verification will be carried out by a mixed group of first aid and external experts from other companies.

Yet some are afraid that the worst may only be at the beginning. “In a while, the peak of seasonal flu will come and we won’t know how to do it”, admitted a doctor. Moreover, the failure to slow down the clinical investigations Tac: only one has been working for about ten days. Without forgetting that in recent days, new water infiltrations have also occurred in the same hospital in Naples following heavy rains. The affected area was the one used as offices and changing rooms for medical health personnel.

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