In Surgery department of the Cardarelli hospital the ‘plan B’ is ready: in the event of problems related, for example, to the expansion of infections, the new operational provisions given by Asrem. Provisions provided for in the internal note signed by the general manager Oreste Florenzano “in the event that there are critical issues” and, he explains to Primonumero, “so that everyone is on alert for any other determinations “. In short, a necessary planning in order not to be caught unprepared and adopted as a precaution.
The alert level has risen in the Operational Unit led by Dr. Giancarlo Di Marzo after it has been ascertained the positivity of two doctors. And it is not excluded that in the coming days there could be other measures such as the temporary suspension of scheduled hospitalizations.
It has already happened in the past: also last October the hospitalizations were suspended as a precaution and family members were not allowed to visit patients treated on the ward. In this case, the measurement was taken after an infection found in a patient (one of the elderly guests of the ‘Pistilli’ nursing home in via delle Frasche then affected by an outbreak) assisted for a disease other than covid. The virus was contained within a short time thanks to the adoption of all the precautionary measures established exactly one year ago. In fact, in January 2021 the ward was affected by a cluster that had involved about thirty doctors and patients.
Certain, numbers very far from the current ones: currently only two doctors of the surgery are positive. In addition to the six operators in the emergency room (four nurses and two doctors), the two medicine nurses (who fortunately had not been in contact with the patients) and a doctor of gynecology. About ten sanitary ware in all. Which forced to arrange 12-hour shifts and daily buffers for staff.
Also al Venetian of Isernia we run for cover: after the positivity of a health worker, the director of the Cardiology operating unit has ordered the transfer to other emergency structures.
Positive nurses and doctors, daily swabs to staff. 12-hour shifts start
Unfortunately, the virus – and in particular the new Omicron variant – is rampant among the wards of the country’s hospitals, infecting doctors, nurses and oss, which last fall were among the first categories to receive the booster dose of the vaccine. A few days ago Fiaso (Italian Federation of Health and Hospital Companies) calculated, on the basis of the report of the Higher Institute of Health of Integrated Surveillance, that there are currently about 13 thousand positive health workers throughout Italy. Numbers that could worsen by forcing healthcare personnel to make new sacrifices to ensure healthcare for both covid and non-covid patients. That’s why there are those who have proposed to review the rules of quarantine for health workers. Guest in a program of La7, the director of Infectious Diseases San Martino of Genoa Matteo Bassetti in fact, he underlined the need to “intervene in a different way because we cannot risk having hospitals that do not go ahead because there is someone asymptomatically positive after three doses of the vaccine. And on this it is necessary for the government to intervene ”.