In the RSA the problem of no-vax operators opens up: in Liguria on the eve of the “recall” campaign, that is the administration of the second dose of vaccine to the health personnel of hospitals and to operators and guests of residences for the elderly, there are those who , especially in the latter, he will remain uncovered by immunization of his own choice, as he refuses to receive the vaccine. The managers of the residences are squaring up and trying to run for cover. Because if the vaccination was carried out among the guests, a flaw in the immunization of the operators can become an open door to the virus in the places that must be most protected from contagion. «In our facility, two operators did not receive the vaccine – explains Ubaldo Borchi, who leads RSA Valpolcevera, in Pontedecimo – one for health reasons, due to allergies, and another refused the vaccination as he is against the vaccine. For now I have removed him from work: he does not go to residence. This decision of his forces me to keep him away from guests and yet I am sorry, he is a highly qualified person. However, I cannot afford to put the health of fragile people at risk ». Even among the guests there are those who have not received the vaccination: it is Mrs. Amelia, 108, who a few months ago defeated Covid and that the health professionals have decided for now not to immunize, counting on her conquered “coverage” defeating the virus.
The Valpolcevera facility is one of the RSAs that has been converted to two speeds, in the midst of the second wave: half, with 22 guests, looks after the elderly and the other half, independent and separate, with another 23 beds, hosts Covid patients who are discharged from hospitals but are not yet in a position to go home. And the intensity of treatment of these patients is not always low, as initially foreseen by the regional protocols: “There are also quite demanding cases, which also need several liters of oxygen per minute, but fortunately they are negativizing – admits Borchi – of the 23, we have discharged several and now 12 places are still occupied ».
An appeal to the regional health system is raised precisely from the RSA of Val Polcevera, which concerns the near future of assistance and residence facilities for the elderly after Covid and which for some time has already focused on the extraordinary commissioner for the RSA of Alisa, the regional health agency, Ernesto Palummeri. “In the RSA the health component must increase – asks Borchi – Covid has done nothing but highlight an already clear need: from the closure of the geriatrics wards in hospitals, it is necessary that the residences strengthen and refine, with personnel and equipment, the sanitary. We need to rethink the Rsa as health facilities in the area, a fundamental segment of widespread territorial medicine that must be rebuilt and strengthened ».
In short, from Covid, residences for the elderly must come out and renew themselves, after having had to face two pandemic waves with few tools and determination: “We managed to stay” clean “until the end of March, then there were several infections, starting from a health worker, I also got sick – recalls Borchi – between the first and second wave things went differently, also because we learned how to use drugs: anti-inflammatories, the right antibiotics and, above all, heparin ». Precisely this, says Borchi, indicated the new needs of the residences: “RSAs must be rethought, integrated with local medicine, connected to the system of general practitioners – he concludes – the health component must be stronger and above all of a specialist type “.
– .
