by Maria Giovanna Faiella
Emergency facilities are in difficulty due to the increase (more than expected) in cases of influenza and other parainfluenza syndromes. Family doctors: 4 million calls a day
Emergency emergency room, with patients parked on stretchers for days at a time, crammed into the structures awaiting admission to the ward. These days, with the increase (more than expected) in cases of influenza and other parainfluenza syndromes (see epidemiological bulletin of 29 December
RespiVirNetintegrated surveillance system for respiratory viruses managed by the Istituto Superiore di Sanit ed.) access to the emergency room has almost doubled and access for children to emergency emergency facilities has even tripled.
(HERE Advice to understand if you really need to go to the emergency room)
Pneumonia, hospitalizations on the rise
Dr. Marcello Covino, head of the Emergency Department and hospitalization unit at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, reports: Normally in our hospital, pneumonia represents 10% of hospitalizations among patients arriving at the Emergency Department; at this moment we record an incidence of pneumonia in patients awaiting hospitalization that exceeds 45%. And we cannot discharge patients with respiratory failure, who are above all elderly or otherwise fragile due to other pathologies. The number of people needing to be hospitalized is higher than the seasonal average.
Even the youngest are affected
Adds Fabio De Iaco, president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (Simeu): Not only is there an increase in elderly and “fragile” patients arriving in the emergency room and having to be admitted to the ward, but also (obviously in smaller extent) of younger people, with pneumonia not due to Covid or the flu. The day before yesterday in my hospital (Maria Vittoria in Turin, ed.) we intubated a 40-year-old woman, negative for Covid and flu, and we still have a 25-year-old girl under observation. And again – continues De Iaco – at a national level, in some cases it also happens that the number of oxygen supply stations in emergency rooms runs out. To deal with the emergency, many hospitals, from North to South, are activating plans for the management of overcrowding in the emergency room, with the temporary conversion of beds (usually in the surgical area) in favor of the medical area.
Children’s visits to the emergency room tripled
Children are also among those most affected by respiratory viruses
: in recent days, access to the emergency room has increased sharply, as explained by Fabio Midulla, president of the Italian Society of Infantile Respiratory Diseases (Simri), head of the emergency pediatrics department of the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome: We are at the center of the peak of the respiratory disease epidemic. Access to the emergency room has tripled in the last month. And 90% of the children admitted to our department are children with bronchiolitis. We also record acute episodes of asthmatic bronchitis and pneumonia (we talked about it here).
Family doctors, increased visits and phone calls
Family doctors were also attacked
. Dr. Alessandro Rossi, president of the Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (SIMG), reports: If on average, at a national level, the calls received by family doctors on ordinary days are around two million, these days they are doubled to even four million phone calls a day. In practice, considering that there are around 40 thousand family doctors, a doctor receives up to a hundred phone calls a day. They call to ask for advice but also to make an appointment for a visit or request medical certificates. We also give instructions to our patients to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations – underlines Doctor Rossi -. Obviously, outpatient visits have also increased.
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January 4, 2024 (modified January 4, 2024 | 09:43)
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