The emergency department at El Clínico is "at its limit": patients in hallways and overwhelmed healthcare workers

José Antonio Sau

The Staff Board of the Virgen de la Victoria University Clinical Hospital, formed by all unions represented at the center, has once again raised their voice about the situation in the emergency department, which is "overwhelmed, with patients in the hallways and health workers at their limit." It is, they say, a situation that worsens day by day and turns "health care into a survival race for both patients and professionals."

The unions claim that there are patients waiting "up to 45 and 65 hours for a bed, patients crowded in hallways, improvised beds known as 'X stretchers', health personnel working under unbearable pressure," a scenario that they had already reported on Thursday, but which has worsened in the last 24 hours.

"Permanent Blockage"

The emergency department suffers from "a permanent blockage." The hospital operates at the limit of its capacity while dozens of patients "remain detained for hours, and even days, in areas that were never designed for hospitalization, elderly people, cancer patients, patients with severe infections, thromboembolisms, or chest pains share hallways without privacy, without rest, and without minimum guarantees of dignified care," reports the Staff Board.

The collapse has been denounced by the union body for months and, as they explain, "the collapse is no longer due to seasonal peaks, but to a chronic situation caused by a lack of beds and absence of reinforcements."

"The collapse is no longer due to seasonal peaks, but to a chronic situation caused by a lack of beds and the absence of reinforcements," say the unions.

The unions argue that health workers describe "dantesque scenes," such as "terminal patients waiting more than 24 hours on a stretcher," a claim that the hospital has categorically denied to SUR. They also mention elderly people spending entire nights without an available bed.

The pressure, the Staff Board says, continues to grow, with not enough contracts or capacity to cover absences or reinforce shifts. Workers claim to be exhausted "physically and psychologically," a situation that "puts lives at risk."

"High Pressure"

The hospital, for its part, has admitted to this newspaper that they suffer from "a high care pressure that is sustained over time," but they indicate that the health personnel "strive every day to provide the best care" to patients. "The care is adequate and we deny such extreme situations" specified by the unions.

Other health sources different from those already mentioned insist that the emergencies of the hospitals managed by the Clínico far exceed the assistance of a thousand patients per day, working with a population of tens of thousands of people in the city's expansion area, a situation that will worsen precisely because of this, that there is no project to expand the center, which they believe is increasingly "necessary" and that some days non-urgent operations are even suspended.

Primary Care

Seasonal peaks, traditionally, occur in summer, when the population increases with the arrival of tourists, or in winter, with the arrival of respiratory viruses that overwhelm services, but at the Clínico, it is now usual for the emergencies to be collapsed, which is also related to the complaint from the SAS Retirees that refers to an average delay of 8.7 days to get an appointment with a general practitioner, a figure that SAS already denied on March 18. The Board places this figure at 2.3 days.

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