TURIN. Something is starting to move again in the Turin hospitals. And it cannot be said that it is promising news, given the Covid epidemic.
They reopen or are about to reopen the dedicated departments: this is it. Nor could it be otherwise, in the face of a virus that has been given up a thousand times in the last two years and instead resilient beyond all expectations. The latest acknowledgment, after that of the doctors who see the return of positive patients in the wards and emergency rooms, was the Ministry of Health. His recent circular invites the Regions to expand the beds in the medical and intensive care area and to alert the local services. There is a concrete concern for the progress of a pandemic which, with a steady increase in cases, is starting to worry the health authorities. The end of an illusion, moreover: that according to which the heat would have put the virus out of action, facilitated by the “free all”.
At the Amedeo di Savoia the Covid departments have already become 2 out of 3. At the Ophthalmic 3 out of 4. San Giovanni, Maria Vittoria and Martini are ready to open a department each. «The activity of the Dirmei since the end of the state of emergency has kept Piedmont among the best in terms of the number of infections, ordinary and intensive hospitalizations – said Carlo Picco, general manager Asl Torino -. The application of the pandemic plan to the ASL foresees the Amedeo di Savoia, infectious disease center, as the first recipient of the Covid management, while an infectious disease department remains active, together with the Ophthalmic, activated with three dedicated departments. An organization that also has the objective of guaranteeing the continuation of the ordinary activities of the other hospitals, engaged in recovering the waiting lists ». “A Covid department has never been closed – echoes Dr. Maurizio Dall’Acqua, general manager of Mauriziano -: if necessary, we will open another one”. At the ASL Torino 3 they have activated 23 beds in Rivoli and 12 in Pinerolo, all at medium and low intensity. At ASL Torino 4 they are on the alert and monitor the situation on a daily basis. Ditto at Turin 5. On stand-by the San Luigi: “For now, the current department guarantees us sufficient autonomy.”
What is worrying is not the current pressure on hospitals but what could arise during the summer, mainly with reference to frail patients, and then weld to a new autumn wave. Or the continuation of the current one, perhaps in the presence of more aggressive variants and seasonal flu.
Hence the first anxieties, combined with a certain confusion. This is the case of the logistics of positive patients or the so-called “Covid Islands”, with reference to the possibility / opportunity of establishing isolation areas from one or more rooms within the specialist departments where to accommodate positive patients hospitalized for other diseases than Covid . Hypothesis advocated by a school of thought that counts among its exponents Sergio Livigni, head of the hospital network, and Giovanni Di Perri, head of infectious diseases at Amedeo, as a suitable solution not to multiply the Covid departments by subtracting space from others. To avoid repacking the disposal of waiting lists, too.
Moreover, the debate, which our newspaper has repeatedly reported in recent months and days, is not a Piedmontese prerogative but is spreading across other regions. Be that as it may, the Region clarifies, and whatever you think of the “Covid Islands”, in the absence of a green light from the Ministry nothing will be done.
For now, the main way remains the modular reopening of Covid wards in hospitals, in proportion to the increase in hospitalizations.