The University Hospital of La Paz, a public reference center in the Community of Madrid, has been forced to suspend extraordinary surgeries this week due to a lack of beds caused by a flu outbreak. The hospital issued an email to staff acknowledging that some operations had to be rescheduled because of the shortage of resources.
“Due to the lack of hospitalization beds due to the flu peak, we are forced to suspend the extraordinary activity of General Surgery next week, both on Thursday and Friday,” the email stated, which was sent by Virginia Quintana, operating room supervisor at the La Paz Hospital. Both the Ministry of Health and the hospital itself have confirmed the suspensions.
The hospital clarified that while some extraordinary activities have been suspended, scheduled and urgent operations are continuing as usual. However, the hospital management maintained that the canceled operations are “extra activity that is done to lighten the waiting list in some specialties,” and reassured that “nothing that is serious or urgent” has been paralyzed.
The hospital’s winter plan involves exceptional measures which are “always exceptional,” according to hospital authorities. The hospital has been overwhelmed by the continuous arrival of flu-infected patients, with more than 100 people in a single guard pending admission but with no available beds.
Despite this situation, the Community of Madrid has not made the mask mandatory in hospitals and health centers, going against the measures adopted by four autonomous communities since last Friday. The latest flu data in Spain for the last week of 2023 showed a flu rate of 438.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which rose to 952.9 when all respiratory diseases were included. The Community of Madrid has a rate of 951.9 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. However, regions with a lower rate have imposed mandatory masks in hospitals and health centers, a measure supported by health organizations such as the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC).