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Published on: Amended:
Barcelona (AFP)
Staff in the intensive care unit at Hospital del Mar in Barcelona fight exhaustion as they grapple with a new wave of Covid-19 patients that are straining the region’s healthcare system .
Ten new intensive care beds were added at this hospital alone, bringing the total to 30.
All are full – and the vast majority of unvaccinated, younger patients occupy them.
Nurses dressed in protective green gowns, face masks and gloves, rush from bed to bed in the hospital overlooking the Mediterranean – where young people were partying weeks earlier after virus restrictions were lifted .
Electronic beeps alert them to different patient needs as they fight for their lives, many of them on ventilators.
“The situation is critical, it looks more like the first wave, and we are overwhelmed,” said intensive care nurse supervisor Desiree Ruiz.
“The staff are exhausted. There are those who need psychological help.
Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, of which Barcelona is the capital, is the epicenter of a fifth wave of coronavirus infections caused by the more contagious Delta variant.
As of Thursday, 637 Covid-19 patients were in intensive care in Catalonia, compared to 1,925 across Spain.
And nearly half of the region’s intensive care beds are occupied by a Covid-19 patient, more than double the national average.
– ‘Breaking point’ –
The increase in cases follows the end of a nationwide nighttime curfew in May and the end of a law in June requiring the use of face masks outdoors.
Images of large groups of young people gathering on Barcelona’s beaches, including one in front of Hospital del Mar, angered hospital staff.
“It took us by surprise. We expected an increase in infections with the measures that were taken (…) but we did not expect an increase in these dimensions,” said Dr Antonia Vazquez, l ‘one of the heads of the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Last month, the region of around 7.8 million people on the border with France reimposed virus restrictions, such as nighttime curfews, in an attempt to curb the spike in infections, especially among young people. not vaccinated.
As the rate of infection has started to drop, it will take time to make itself felt in the intensive care unit where patients need round-the-clock care for staff who have been battling the pandemic for a year and half now.
In a bed, a woman in her twenties was resting, a photo next to her of her newborn baby delivered by Caesarean section.
The increase in the number of cases, as well as the shortage of staff as hospital workers go on summer leave, are taking a toll on morale.
“During the first wave no one thought for a moment to quit, but now more and more people are saying ‘if I could I would go now and never come back’,†Vazquez said. “Everyone is at breaking point.
– Younger patients –
The spike in infections came as health workers began taking their summer vacation, leaving the hospital with fewer staff.
“We went from having 10 Covid patients in the hospital a week to 150,†said hospital chief doctor Miguel Pera.
Finding staff for the extra beds for Covid-19 patients has been “complicated”.
Catalonia’s health service has canceled all non-essential surgeries to free up hospital staff.
The average age of Covid-19 patients in hospital intensive care fell from 60 to 65 to around 50 during the first wave of the pandemic last year.
The vast majority of Covid-19 patients in intensive care had not been fully vaccinated, either because they had not chosen too much or because it was not their turn yet.
But unlike the first wave last year, the death toll remains low, thanks to the availability of vaccines.
Spain’s immunization program has worked across age groups, meaning that young people have only recently started receiving vaccines.
Almost 60% of the Spanish population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, one of the highest rates in Europe.
“The vaccine had a very strong protective effect, without it the situation would have been much more difficult,” Pera said.
© 2021 AFP
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