Saturated hospitals leading to patient deaths

Hospitals in Panama are currently in “critical mode”  says former  Health Minister and member of the Advisory Health Council, Francisco Sánchez Cárdenas, who stressed that just as the majority of patients with Covid-19 die in hospital rooms, health personnel who work there are most at risk of contagion.

He said that there are more patients and health personnel in the wards, therefore, the number of deaths and infections will be greater than in intensive care units (ICU)., there are 4,989 hospital beds in wards, compared to 458 in ICUs, across the country.

“In the wards we are evaluating whether people feel very insecure due to the lack of personal protective equipment or if there are too many patients with few staff. We have insisted to the Government that a greater effort must be made to protect personnel, “he added.

Sánchez Cárdenas said that two-thirds of the total deaths from Covid-19 are in wards, and that with the increase in patients in hospital facilities, between June and July they appointed 163 more doctors.

This week, the Advisory Council recommended to the Presidency of the Republic the creation of an “elite unit” of doctors and nurses to detect specific problems in hospital wards and find answers, both to deaths and infections that occur there.

Internist Reynaldo Chandler said that patients with Covid-19 arrive in the wards in a mild and moderate state, but often up to five and six days after being infected and the disease is already very advanced. and, some have acute respiratory failure, which further complicates their health.

This is one of the reasons why the Ministry of Health and the Social Security Fund have now chosen to deliver oximeters (oxygen meter) to patients with mild Covid-19 who are in isolation at home or in hospital hotels.

According to doctors, one of the characteristics of patients with Covid-19 is that they often give the impression of being well, but when they are evaluated they have low levels of oxygen in their body that can lead to death. In these cases, timing is key.

This week the Ministry of Health released a care guide for patients with mild or moderate conditions who are in homes and hotels, which established that they will transfer the infected to hospitals when they mark 93% or less of oxygen saturation.

Pregnant patients will be conducted when they report a saturation of 96% or less.

Nuvia Batista President of the  Society of Internal Medicine – says that there are no personnel for the number of new patients that arrive every day.

“Of the daily average of 1,000 cases for several weeks, at least 100 require to go to a hospital. When you multiply that for several weeks, there are many who enter, “said Batista.

She added that they also find a lack of supplies to treat the most serious patients who come to the wards and who cannot take them to the ICU, where they are at their maximum capacity.. “In other words, the saturation of hospitals is what is causing so many deaths,” she said.

The specialist believes that the Government must take drastic measures: patients who come to wards must be reduced and this is achieved by stopping infections in the community. The problem will not be resolved in hospitals.