CREMONA – The incidence of influenza syndromes has gone from 18 to 16 per thousand inhabitants, which means that in our province there would be still around five thousand people struggling with fever, cough and cold. The peak, according to the latest Influnews report from the Lombardy Region, would therefore have passed. Although the cold temperatures of the last few days suggest that it is certainly early to talk about the danger having been averted, the lower numbers of hospital admissions confirm that the worst is currently behind us. However, until three-four days ago it was characterized by the so-called ‘black index’.
To explain what it means is Francesca Co’, director of the Maggiore Emergency Department: «Working with the ‘black index’ means managing highly overcrowded conditions, with limited spaces and many patients waiting for hospitalization or in highly complex conditions. Crowding slows down operational and take-over times, with repercussions on activity.”
To get a more precise idea of the problem, the numbers are enough: in 21 days there were 3,365 visits to the city emergency room and, net of the last weekend when the situation clearly improved, there were more than 160 per day. With an average hospitalization rate of 15.6%: just under one in six.
The data naturally does not only concern flu syndromes, but certainly a good part of these outbreaks was attributable to respiratory symptoms, Covid, flu, especially in elderly and frail people. According to the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (Simeu) at a national level the increase in access to hospitals would be 30%.
Despite the pressure, as underlined by a testimony sent to our newspaper, the assistance and professionalism of the healthcare staff has always been guaranteed: “I saw a lot of stretchers coming and going – wrote a woman from Cremona -, but great attention towards those present” .
Doctors Francesca Cò and Enrico Storti
And to talk about the organization of the Emergency Department of the Asst of Cremona is the head physician Enrico Storti, which confirms a significantly higher ‘load’ from the second half of December precisely due to the flu. The situation is improving, but it does not exclude new waves: «The pressure is easing – says Storti – and the bulletin data also confirm that the epidemic curve is falling, however we expect higher-than-normal admissions for the entire month of January. Our emergency room operates on three lines, the first is the ad high intensity and concerns patients with serious or evolving conditions, it works with a doctor 24 hours a day, two nurses and an OSS; it can count on six beds. Then there is the average intensity line with another six beds and that low intensity per green and white codes, patients who usually go home. The triage area is made up of nurses who essentially determine the entrances and where to send the patients, then there is the short intensive observation which was recently renovated in Cremona and has eight monitored stations”.
Naturally, the pediatric emergency room is added to this organization which concerns adults. The Department also includes emergency room, emergency medicine, intensive care and resuscitation. On average, Storti speaks of 55 thousand visits to the emergency room in a year: 150 per day on average, but in reality it is the busiest periods, such as the end of December and the beginning of January, that increase it.
Furthermore, it is available to citizens to understand the situation in real time the ‘Salaiuto. App‘, which allows us to understand how many people are waiting and how many are already being treated. Yesterday in mid-afternoon, for example, four green codes and one white were waiting; four yellow codes and 18 green codes have already been taken care of.
A CREAM «THE PEAK HAS PASSED»
Of Stefano Sagrestano
Giovanni Viganò, head of the emergency room at the Maggiore hospital in Crema
The stressful situation due to the large number of daily accesses during the Christmas period also seems to have been resolved in Crema. The Emergency Department of the Maggiore hospital has returned to more usual numbers and therefore better manageable by the medical, nursing and auxiliary staff. With the peak of the seasonal flu apparently behind us, people can breathe again in the emergency area of the city hospital. Even Covid infections, although present, are under control, as are hospitalizations.
«Last night (Saturday, ndr) – clarified yesterday the head physician Giovanni Viganò – no situation of overcrowding was recorded in our emergency room, in particular with regard to accesses due to influenza or cases of Covid”. Overall, 130 accesses were recorded on Saturday: «With normal expectations» specified the medical director. The winter average is around 160-170. «Bed spaces were available – continued Viganò – prepared to manage a possible peak in access at the weekend, which in any case did not occur. It was not necessary to divert any patients to other hospital facilities.”
The emergency room situation, in particular the need to increase staff and study, together with the territory, formulas that make working at the Maggiore hospital more attractive for doctors and nurses, is one of the priority objectives of the newly appointed general director, the 42 year old Alessandro Cominelli. It is not for nothing that the manager who lives in Cumignano sul Naviglio, 12 kilometers from the hospital, on New Year’s Eve wanted to experience first-hand the situation in the emergency emergency area. Not just a courtesy visit to congratulate doctors and nurses, but the desire to understand the trend of access between midnight on the 31st and 2am on the first.
«The staff who work in the emergency room give their all. I’m dealing with expectations as well as the lack of staff. We will study expedients to shorten the time”, underlined Cominelli a couple of days later, on the occasion of his first official meeting with the Crema press. All while waiting for tomorrow, in which Cominelli will present the other three members of the management, whom he appointed last week.
THE NEW HEALTH DIRECTOR
After the retirement of Roberto Sfogliarini, the new health director is Alessandro Malingher, who comes from Mantua: he is 53 years old and since 2022 he had held a similar position at the Asst of the Virgilian city. Previously he had worked in the planning, accreditation, purchasing and control department of health and social care services of Ats Val Padana. Carolina Maffezzoni is the socio-health director: a 63-year-old psychologist, she specializes in clinical psychotherapy with a systemic relational focus. After several years dedicated to clinical activity always carried out in public services, you dealt with the accreditation, supervision and control of social and healthcare offering units. From 2016 to 2019 you were responsible for Innovation in social and health management of the Region’s general Welfare directorate. Finally Giuseppe Ferrari, new head of the administrative department. Born in 1962, he also comes from the Asst of Mantua, where he has held the same position since 2019. Graduated in Economics in Brescia, he entered the healthcare sector in 1991.