Abrantes intensive care 90% occupied due to respiratory infections

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Abrantes Hospital, in the Médio Tejo Hospital Center (CHMT), today reached 90% of its installed capacity for intensive care admissions for patients with respiratory infections, with flu-like symptoms accounting for 80% of emergency room visits.

Carlos Lousada, clinical director and head of the Pneumology Service at CHMT, the entity that brings together the Abrantes, Tomar and Torres Novas hospitals in the district of Santarém, told Lusa that the hospital unit in Abrantes, where the Medical-Surgical Emergency Unit (UMC) is concentrated, now has “10 patients in intensive care with respiratory infections (yesterday there were 11), for an installed capacity of 12 beds”.

Five of these patients are “ventilated due to severe respiratory failure”.

The patients admitted are aged between 42 and 84.

With an “average of 600 visits a day” in the emergency rooms of the three hospital units in the last week, 150 of which were in pediatrics, the clinical director of the CHMT said it was “on a par with the emergency rooms of the central hospitals in terms of care activity”, with “80% of the visits to the Emergency Services (ER) being for respiratory diseases”.

The majority of people who come to the emergency room, around 450, are aged between 30 and 94.

In view of the situation and the demand for care, the CHMT has decided to “reinforce inpatient teams and beds”, as part of the flu contingency plan, “to meet the peak demand and to cope with the coming weeks”.

The hospital expects the current situation to continue “until the end of January, with the peak in the second half of January”, due to the “large social gatherings” of the Christmas and New Year’s festive season, and the institution has indicated the elderly and children as groups at risk.

With five emergency services (ERs), including two basic ERs in Tomar and Torres Novas, the pediatric ER in Torres Novas and the maternity ward and Medical Surgical Unit (UMC) in Abrantes, the CHMT ERs nevertheless have a “60% prevalence of green/blue wristbands” on triaged patients, i.e. non-urgent cases, which increases waiting times.

Average waiting times in the last week for urgent patients (yellow) in the Médio Tejo hospitals have been between one and three hours, while non-urgent patients (green and blue) wait between seven and 12 hours.

Emergency patients are admitted immediately.

The Manchester triage, which makes it possible to assess the patient’s clinical risk and assign a degree of priority, includes five levels: emergent (red bracelet), very urgent (orange), urgent (yellow), not very urgent (green) and non-urgent (blue).

In the case of yellow wristbands, the first service should not take longer than 60 minutes, and in the case of green wristbands, the recommendation is that it should not take longer than 120 minutes (two hours).

The Clinical Director of the Médio Tejo Hospital Center called on the population to follow the recommendations of the General Health Directorate (DGS) for cold temperatures and to use Linha Saúde 24 (808242424) before going to the emergency services.

“Don’t come to the emergency room with mild symptoms,” Carlos Lousada appealed, pointing to the overload in the emergency room, which is already under “a lot of pressure”, and the risk of contagion. “Anyone who has to go to the emergency room should always wear a mask,” he said.

Consisting of the Abrantes, Tomar and Torres Novas hospitals, geographically separated from each other by around 30 kilometers, the CHMT operates on a complementary basis, covering a population of around 266,000 inhabitants from 11 municipalities in the Médio Tejo region, along with Golegã, Lezíria do Tejo, also in the district of Santarém, Vila de Rei, in Castelo Branco, and the municipalities of Gavião and Ponte de Sor, both in Portalegre.

Moti Shabi
Moti Shabi
Moti Shabi

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