At least 49 patients with Covid wait for vacancies in hospitals in Greater SP

At least 49 patients in municipalities in Greater São Paulo were waiting for transfers to ICUs (Intensive Care Units) or common beds in referral hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 this Friday morning (28).

Between the afternoon of this Thursday (27) and the morning of this Friday, the leaf searched 38 city halls of municipalities in the metropolitan region and 11 of them said that there were patients with Covid waiting for vacancies via Cross (Central for Regulation of the Offer of Health Services), a service linked to the Secretary of State for Health.

Covid-19 cases are at an accelerated pace, especially in the interior of the state, due to the omicron variant of the new coronavirus.

According to the João Doria government’s portfolio (PSDB), Cross assists in identifying a vacancy in the nearest hospital that is able to take care of the case.

Through a website, a medical service with a patient who needs a transfer looks for the regulation center to find out where there are vacancies for outpatient clinics, beds and emergency rooms, among others. The transfer is made only after authorization.

“Cross’s role is not to create beds”, says the secretary, in a note. ​”The transfer of a patient does not depend exclusively on the availability of places, but also on a stable clinical condition, free of infections, which allows them to move to another health service for their own safety.”

The state portfolio says that there are still municipal or regional regulations, and the Union.

According to the state government’s Simi (Smart Monitoring System), on Thursday there were 548 cases of regulation via Cross for Covid-19 in the state, with 35.2% (193) being for adult ICUs.

Earlier this week, two elderly women, aged 73 and 85, died in a UPA (Emergency Care Unit) in Jales (585 km from the capital) waiting for transfers to ICUs in São José do Rio Preto (483 km from capital). The two women, who had comorbidities, were hospitalized with the new coronavirus in a UPA (Emergency Care Unit).

According to physician Renato Grinbaum, an infectious disease specialist and consultant for the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, patients with instabilities are sent to ICUs, who cannot maintain blood pressure or breathe properly, at risk of cardiac arrest.

What takes a patient with Covid to the ICU

• Shortness of breath, low saturation, or need breathing assistance
• When the pressure and the nutritional capacity of the organs is impaired and it is necessary to adopt protective measures
• Thrombosis cases, especially pulmonary embolism with risk of having both respiratory and circulatory problems

Although there is often urgency in intensive care, according to the city halls consulted by the report, the wait to get a place via Cross in reference beds can reach 72 hours.

Cotia, with 14 people, Suzano (10) and Itapevi (9) are the cities with the most patients with Covid-19 in the transfer queue.

In Cotia, the city government says that municipal emergency services do not have intensive care units, but have 11 red beds, which are equivalent to ICUs. The transfer cases are to state hospitals referenced in the treatment of the new coronavirus, according to the municipal administration.

In Suzano, patients waiting for vacancies are hospitalized in the Municipal Emergency Room and are waiting for both ICU and ward beds. “During this period, they receive necessary assistance with ventilatory support”, says the city hall, in a note. The same occurs in Caieiras, which had a person in line this Friday morning.

In Itapevi, currently the occupancy rate of ICU beds is 75%, according to the Municipal Health Department. The average in the metropolitan region, according to the Doria government, is 78.4%, and in the state, 69.7%.

In Francisco Morato, with four patients in the regulatory queue, there are no ICU beds and the municipality claims to depend on state government referral hospitals.

Last Wednesday (26), the government announced 700 more exclusive beds for the treatment of Covid-19 in the state.

“Or number of ICUs not SUS [Sistema Único de Saúde] of São Paulo practically tripled in the pandemic, jumping from 3.5 thousand to more than 10 thousand”, says the folder.

In Barueri, among the four people who queued for transfers between Thursday night and Friday morning, there are two children.

As shown by leaf, at least seven Brazilian states have an occupancy of more than 80% of pediatric ICU beds for the treatment of children with Covid-19.

Mauá, with a patient in the queue, says that “the municipality has also faced occasional delays for the return of Cross for other diseases”.

According to the SP Covid-19 Info Tracker platform, created by researchers from USP (University of São Paulo) and Unesp (Universidade Estadual Paulista), with support from Fapesp (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo), hospitalizations of patients with Covid-19 in the state rose 21.33% in one week. In the case of hospitalizations in ICU beds, the discharge was 22.46%. The data is from Thursday.

According to statisticians from universities in São Paulo, the numbers are higher in Greater SP, with a rise of 24.45% in hospitalizations in general hospitalizations for cases of the new coronavirus and 28.38% in ICUs.

According to the state government, there are about 2,000 people with Covid-19 hospitalized in intensive care units in the state.

“The transfer to an ICU is a moment of hope because resources and time will be spent with the great expectation that people will recover, preferably without sequelae”, says physician Renato Grinbaum.

IN QUEUE

Source: Municipalities