Argentina: hospitals, on the verge of rupture, try to cope
Audio 02:35
In Argentinian hospitals, it is hoped that the acceleration of the vaccination campaign will soon come to relieve the intensive therapy services.
© AP / Natacha Pisarenko
By: Théo Conscience Follow
6 mins
The health situation continues to deteriorate in Argentina, to the point of reaching a critical stage.
The surge in the number of Covid-19 contagions puts intensive therapy services on the verge of collapse ... Almost 80% of intensive care beds in the country are occupied, unheard of since the start of the pandemic.
In six provinces, this figure is even over 90%.
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From our correspondent in Buenos Aires,
Luciana Franco is an intensive therapy nurse.
She works at the Juan Antonio Fernández Hospital in Buenos Aires.
In this public establishment, the 50 beds in the intensive care unit are occupied.
“
We have much younger patients.
Last year they were over 60, now they are much younger and their condition is very serious,
”says the nurse.
Faced with the constant flow of patients, she is worried about the hospital's care capacities.
“
We have a lot more places in intensive care than last year, but that has negative consequences.
Equipment is lacking, and staff often lack training.
New nurses arrive without experience in critical services, and they often end up resigning
”, deplores Luciana Franco.
Reorganize to avoid sinking ...
Additional beds, ventilators, medicines, staff: at the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires, a vast reorganization of services has so far made it possible to avoid saturation.
Doctor Eduardo San Román, head of the intensive therapy service, shows us around this new arrangement.
“
This is where the majority of patients are.
But all of this was not as you see it now,
”says Dr San Román.
The doctor shows a large partition.
It was built to separate the “sterile” area, indicated by green stickers on the floor, and the “contaminated” area, paved with red markers.
“
When the hospital started to be inundated with Covid-19 patients, we built this, and this is where we access the Covid-19 zone
,” he says.
... but a staff that is still lacking
An optimization of the available space which made it possible to increase the number of beds, but without solving the problem of lack of staff.
For this, the establishment, which is also a university hospital, was able to count on its pool of young doctors.
"
With rapid training, it is possible to give tools to people who are not specialized in intensive therapy, so that they can participate actively by following very strict alert protocols
", warns doctor San Román.
These reinforcements follow a precise protocol for diagnosing patients, drawn up from the start of the pandemic.
“
There are patients who naturally do not meet the criteria for admission to intensive therapy.
This is what allowed us to select patients well, because the first thing to do in times of disaster is to select.
Select the one that this sacrifice will really be able to help,
”he admits.
In Argentinian hospitals, it is hoped that the acceleration of the vaccination campaign will soon come to relieve the intensive therapy services.
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