One in three victims of the coronavirus has died in Madrid. What responsibility does the regional government have? We have given the healthcare response that we could give with the capacity that the Community of Madrid had. We have done what is humanly possible and all the resources that could be put in place have been put in place. Could it have been managed in another way? Now, with what we already know, there would be certain decisions that we would have taken in another way. Do you mean that they have made mistakes? I mean the decisions that could have been made before. This is a virus that does not have a vaccine or specific treatment and the only way is to contain it. If we had distanced ourselves from it earlier, the number of infections would have been considerably reduced; it has been said that if we had acted earlier, the number of infections would have been lower. In the end, time has marked the evolution of the crisis? This question would have to be answered by the Ministry of Health. In the week prior to 8-M we held six meetings and in all of them we conveyed the concern we had in Madrid, especially with the origin of unaffiliated pneumonia. We were very active from the first moment to detect them and we saw that something was happening (...). On March 9, when we doubled from 200 to 400 cases, we decided to close schools, institutes and universities, because that meant stopping 40% of the activity. At the same time, decisions had been taken such as the closure of the nursing homes, visits to residences ... From there it was the impulse that made the Government decide to confine. If Minister Salvador Illa had heeded Would the warnings have reduced the impact of Covid in Spain? Insurance. I am convinced. You just have to see what has happened in other countries, such as Portugal or Greece: as soon as they detected the first case they were confined and the repercussion has been totally different. This virus is very contagious and there were many people together for a long time during that weekend, especially on Sunday. And that had a clear effect. Why do you think you did not heed the warnings? What we detected is that there was a before and after in the attitude of the Ministry since March 9. But we made the warnings from the first moment and conveyed that we were concerned. The Ministry always told us about traceability, that it was an outbreak that was controlled ... But we saw that this was not the case, because patients appeared in many hospitals, especially with those pneumonias that we did not know the cause of and we saw that It was growing at a very fast speed. Did the political reasons come before the health ones? I think so. They were absolutely political reasons, otherwise I cannot understand why he was not confined before. Nor why when the decision to confine was made, if the criterion was control of the number of cases, it was decided to confine all of Spain, which does not make much sense either. And Madrid could not act before? We have seen overwhelmed emergencies, professionals protected with garbage bags, the first plane with material did not arrive until April ... In this emergency situation, the one who carried out the strategy was the Ministry. We were concerned that they did not understand that the situation in Madrid was going to happen in other communities. Did the centralized purchases of the Ministry prevent Madrid from buying on its own? The decision was transmitted to us in an Inter-territorial Council, that the purchases would be made centrally. Nine days later, in another Interterritorial Council, they told us yes, that we should start doing. We have asked for the minutes so that it is clear how the order was produced, but they have not been sent to us yet.

SERGIO G. VALERO

Why did the centralized purchasing system fail? I think it was a capacity problem, I honestly say it, because buying in a market where practically every country is buying is very difficult. What the Ministry has given us is more or less the same as what we have received in donations. And with the current stock of material, would it be enough if there were a flare-up? The development of the pandemic is three months, so with 45 days of stock we have guaranteed a month and a half of supply. I hope that there will never be a regrowth, but in the event that there were with all the measures that have been taken, masks, social distance, hand washing ... it would not be the same. We are more concerned with the part of the regrowth due to imported cases, than it is being detected. Our big problem is Barajas. What has been the worst moment of these three months? The day we made the decision to start the Ifema hospital: it represented that the growth in the number of cases was so high that despite the elasticity from public and private healthcare, medicalized hotels ... we needed more hospital beds. The College of Physicians has denounced that Primary Care has been dismantled to staff Ifema. In a pandemic, the decisions made are medical. of war (...). That the answer can be improved? Surely, but at that time the decision was right. Is it necessary to build an Ifema model hospital for pandemics if it is not yet known if there will be a Covid outbreak? To such a resource, with 1,000 beds, we will not have a problem in giving it health content. It is very useful for future needs. Have you felt supported by your Government and by the president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso? I have always felt supported by the president, and are you not afraid that the incorporation of the director of the Ifema hospital, Antonio Zapatero, to the Ministry of Health could mean that she is preparing her replacement? I think not, I say this with absolute frankness. In the situation in which we are creating a Vice-Ministry of Public Health and the Covid Plan is very successful and the relationship with Zapatero is excellent. Did you think of resigning when the Governing Council approved requesting the pass to Phase 1 of the de-escalation while you asked wait a week? We had a debate like the ones that are held in the government councils, because there the health decision is always more cautious than when other factors are raised. In the end it was decided to make that request, which did not come, and which did not come the second time either. But I did not consider resignation. Did economic criteria take precedence over sanitary? It is a difficult balance. But it was not about confronting health with the economy. How is your relationship with the Minister of Social Policies, Alberto Reyero? We have a Governing Council relationship. We are also in two areas, which have many meeting points.

SERGIO G. VALERO

Do you think that it has been unfair in the conflict of the residences, where 6,000 people have died from Covid in this crisis? Conflict situations, which we have among all the councils, because it is impossible not to have them, are resolved as easily as picking up the phone. I would have explained that the referral of patients is a strictly technical approach, that it was not a definitive protocol, and that it had been worked on by professionals from different areas. If it was a draft, why did I carry the digital signature of a senior position in your counseling? Because sometimes mistakes are made (...). But trying to think that there may be a political guideline based on age or current account criteria seems so vile to me ... I refuse from start to finish. Anyone who thinks that these protocols have a political component is questioning the professionalism of geriatricians in this case and that's why it didn't happen, but the fact is that, in some of the versions of the protocol that was sent, among the criteria Exclusion included physical or cognitive impairment to a specific degree and then it was rectified. The important component of the protocol is that of clinical decision. If one is questioning that these criteria were used, one is questioning the action of the geriatricians, who are the ones who decide the referrals, and it seems very serious to me (...). The important thing is that from the clinical point of view no referral was established with these criteria. Did all the elderly who needed a bed in the hospital have it? All those who have had clinical evaluation by geriatricians have had it. The problem is to think that the criterion used is that of age, which is what has been tried to transfer. And it is not like that. There was no exclusion. If the criterion were age, one out of every two hospitalized patients would not be over 70 years old, we would not have had patients over 105 years old ... And triage, especially in specialties such as geriatrics, was before Covid, during Covid and It will be later. Did they intervene late in the residences? Health did not assume sole command of its management until the end of March. We do not stop acting in the residences. Transfers to hospitals, which have exceeded 10,600, have been made since before March 1. The liaison geriatricians were already before the single command. Looking at it a posteriori ... I wish we could have confined a week earlier. Are you worried about the internal investigation of the residences announced by the president? No, on the contrary, telling what has been done is a good exercise in transparency. And the causes judicial open? In a complaint of relatives of the deceased, they accuse them of reckless homicide. We are going to provide all the information they ask us about how decisions have been made, bearing in mind that we were in a pandemic situation.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Coronavirus
  • Madrid
  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Isabel Díaz Ayuso
  • Greece
  • Madrid's community
  • Covid 19
  • Descaled

Covid-19Madrid denies the Health reasons one by one to prevent it from going to phase 1

DescalingSalvador Illa expects Madrid and the rest of Spain to be in Phase 1 or higher "in the coming days"

CongressThe chief emeritus of Microbiology of the Cashew: "At the end of February we were already warned from Italy that people died like bedbugs"

See links of interest

  • News
  • TV programming
  • Translator
  • Madrid calendar
  • Madrid capital calendar
  • Calendar
  • Horoscope
  • Classification
  • League calendar
  • Films
  • Cut notes
  • Themes
  • Espanyol - Alavés
  • SC Paderborn 07 - SV Werder Bremen
  • 1. FC Köln - 1. FC Union Berlin
  • VfL Wolfsburg - Sport-Club Freiburg
  • Mallorca - Barcelona