There are health professionals talking about chaos. At the moment, there are more than 50 patients in the Emergency Department of Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça waiting for a bed for hospitalization.
The majority of them are acutely ill patients who require hospital care. Only a minority, less than ten, are patients who have already been discharged, but who, for social reasons, remain in the Hospital, in this case, in the General Emergency Service.
The situation, which causes wear and tear on users and healthcare professionals, as in the rest of the country, is due to the increase in respiratory illnesses (respiratory infections), particularly flu.
However, it is not possible to accurately predict how many will be infected by Covid-19, as the Emergency Department has not had rapid tests for SARS-CoV-2 infection, a situation that has begun to be resolved in recent days.
The majority of people awaiting hospitalization are elderly, with even people over 90 years old.
Use of health centers
Health professionals urge users to first go to the emergency room at health centers and, only in serious cases, to a hospital.
For example, in Funchal, the service operates until midnight at the Bom Jesus Health Center.
DIÁRIO has already requested clarification from SESARAM, namely about the underlying causes of the situation and measures that will be taken to alleviate them. We await this clarification.