Simon Wade
HOSPITALS throughout the Valencia region have suspended all non-emergency surgical activity to make bed space for Coronavirus victims.
General director of Healthcare in Valenciana, Mariam Garcia Layunta (below), said, “the number of cases is increasing [as is the] increase in the healthcare pressure in our hospitals.”
She admitted that health departments are applying their contingency plans, “expanding spaces, doubling beds that allow for greater healthcare capacity in the ward and in ICU.”
“We still have sufficient capacity to respond and we have other facilities that we did not have in the first wave, such as field hospitals.”
She also recalled that the Director of Public Health, Ana Barceló, “issued a resolution where the resources of private health were made available to us in this public-private collaboration”.
Regarding the cancellation of non-urgent surgery, “our priority is the care of COVID and non-COVID patients who require hospitalization, but we will postpone any interventions that can be postponed.”
Other procedures suspended are non-preferential diagnostic tests and scheduled admissions, except for those involved in rapid cancer diagnosis (breast and colon cancer screening etc.)
Layunta concluded that, “we will soon be able to get out of this situation, without hospitals being overwhelmed, guaranteeing care for all Valencians.”
