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ARCHIVED - Murcian health service cancels all staff leave as covid situation deteriorates
The region now has the highest number of cases at any point in this whole pandemic and hospitals are already struggling to cope
During the last week the Region of Murcia the number of coronavirus cases detected has been the highest since the pandemic began, and on Thursday the number of active cases in the region reached its highest point ever, with 13,203 patients either in home quarantine or hospitalised.
On Thursday the Murcia Region had the second highest incidence rate for the whole of Spain, with 474 cases per 100,000 of population over the last 7 days, second only to La Rioja with 494. During the first wave Murcia consistently reported the lowest figures in the country, but is now one of the worst affected.
Murcia is one of the smallest regions of Spain geographically, and this huge burden for our regional health authorities, threatens to totally overwhelm the health service in the coming days, as should the number of new cases follow the same evolution as it has in the previous waves of the virus, a percentage of these new cases will require hospital treatment, a percentage will end up in intensive care and a percentage will die.
The situation in the hospitals and health centres of the Region of Murcia is now critical and the health authority confidently expects it to get worse in the coming month as the rate of increase in the number of new cases has been so rapid and so intense.
Emergency wards have already been opened in anticipation of a surge in admissions, others are ready and waiting (such as the second floor in the Rosell in Cartagena; click to read full article); this week the regional health service has suspended non-urgent operations in all of the hospitals of the region and on Thursday issued a decree suspending all holidays and leave permits for health personnel of the regional health service in order to "have all the human resources that are necessary in the coming weeks".
A letter sent by the General Director of Human Resources, Pablo Alarcón, to the directors of the different health areas of the SMS warns its workers that they will face an exceptional situation in the coming days , "not seen until now and that will require an extraordinary effort from all health service professionals. That is why even, to guarantee the functioning of the healthcare services, "we must proceed to cancel or suspend those (permits) that have already been granted or are even currently active."
The SMS warns that critical weeks are to come, and is aware that the existing personnel are already exhausted and demoralised by the incessant waves of patients as well as frustrated that the continued breaching of regulations is leading to further contagions.
The authorities are also aware that the public is bored with warnings that the health service is on the brink of collapse, but yet again this week, the regional president has hardened restrictions and called for collective responsibility in an attempt to limit the spread of the contagions, and health professionals know that once they are overwhelmed as there simply aren´t any more nurses available to care for the sick, that the numbers of patients dying will inevitably increase.
And the longer the pandemic continues, the longer patients will have to wait for non-urgent surgery, and the larger the number of people who will die from non-covid related illnesses simply because there aren´t enough resources to cope with everything.
The support the health service needs right now is simple; stay at home and avoid any un-necessary contacts.