Influx of non-Covid patients to emergencies in Lisbon Pressure on hospitals – Society
The influx of non-covid patients to the emergencies of major hospitals in Lisbon is increasing, many in serious condition needing hospitalization, increasing pressure on health units, said this Wednesday to Lusa hospital officials.
At the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Lisboa Central (CHULC), which includes hospitals São José, Curry Cabral, Dona Estefânia, Santa Marta, Capuchos and Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital, the number of emergency patients increased “almost double in relation to what is the norm”.
“For each emergency, the number of people who are hospitalized has increased a lot”, said Paulo Espiga, executive member of the Board of Directors of CHULC, adding that they are “complicated patients” that imply “a lot of care” and hospitalization.
According to Paulo Espiga, the pressure on emergencies is increasing in two ways. On the one hand, covid-19 suspects who are “a little more than was normal in recent weeks”, and on the other hand, “and more importantly”, non-covid patients, whose pressure has been felt since the beginning. September, but which has become more acute.
As for internments, Paulo Espiga said that there is “high occupation”. In the areas of Medicine, “the pressure is extremely high” and forces beds from other areas to be allocated to the Medicine area.
“If covid-19 continues to rise then this pressure will be even greater because they are beds that we will have to remove to other areas to affect patients, but at this moment the pressure we have from patients not covered,” he points out.
The Emergency Department of the University Hospital Center Lisboa Norte (CHULN), which includes the Santa Maria and Pulido Valente hospitals, has also been experiencing a greater influx of seriously ill patients.
Although there are still patients with green and blue bracelets in the emergency room (non-urgent cases), there is “a change in that profile compared to the past”, CHULN’s clinical director, Luís Pinheiro, told Lusa.
“We already have a predominance that, at times, surpasses 70% of identified patients and oranges representing more complex patients (…) unlike the previous history where they were more or less 50%, or sometimes less, from total affluence to urgency, “he referred, antecedents that are patients who” suffer a longer and more complex type of care and assistance”.
Regarding non-covid admissions, he stated that a reality similar to the pre-pandemic phase is being experienced, with “significant filling” of internment areas, in both programmed and unscheduled activities, “thanks to what has been the influx to emergencies also qualitatively, also to the pre-pandemic phase”.
The hospital still has room to respond to demand, because it has “a dynamics of admissions and effective discharges”, but the clinical director expressed “some concern” with the winter: “These are always periods of greater pressure on the systems”. this year, the covid and non-covid responses will have to be combined, causing complications a year ago “simple minor”.
As for covid-19, he added that 17 patients are hospitalized with covid-19 in the ward and six in intensive care, but that there is still room to hospitalize more patients with the device currently installed.
“They are mostly older patients” and the “very large majority” vaccinated with the two doses. However, they have “less serious clinical conditions”, one of the impacts of the vaccine against covid-19 and that now the third dose “will help to reduce or at least not increase”.
Data from the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley advanced this Wednesday to Lusa indicate that 159 patients are admitted to hospitals in the region with covid-19, with 138 in the ward and 21 in the Intensive Care Unit.