Covid wards reopen in Piedmont Hospitals

Turin. Something is starting to move again in the Turin hospitals. It cannot be said that it is promising news given the Covid epidemic.

They reopen or are about to reopen custom partitions: that’s it. Nor could it be otherwise, in the face of a virus that has been abandoned a thousand times in the past two years and instead resilient beyond all expectations. The latest admission, after that of doctors who witnessed the return of patients in wards and emergency rooms, was the Ministry of Health. His latest circular calls on districts to expand beds in the medical and intensive care area and alert local services. There is concrete concern about the progress of the epidemic that, with the steady increase in cases, is beginning to worry health authorities. Moreover, the end of the illusion: that the heat under which it would have taken the virus out of action, facilitated by the “free all”.

In Amedeo di Savoia, Covid sections are already 2 of 3. In Ophthalmic 3 of 4. San Giovanni, Maria Vittoria and Martini are ready to open a section for each. “The activity of Dermi since the end of the state of emergency has made Piedmont among the best in terms of the number of injuries, and the regular and intensive hospitalizations,” said Carlo Picco, Director General of Origin of Turin. Applying the pandemic plan to the ASL anticipates that the Amedeo di Savoia, the center of infectious diseases, will be the first recipient of Covid management, while the infectious diseases department remains active, along with ophthalmology, with three dedicated departments. An organization that also aims to ensure the continuation of the normal activities of other hospitals, and is working to restore waiting lists.” “The Covid department has never been closed – if necessary, we will open another department,” said Dr. Maurizio Dal Acqua, General Manager of Mauriziano. At ASL Torino 3, they activated 23 beds in Rivoli and 12 beds in Pinerolo, all at medium and low densities. In ASL Torino 4 they are on the alert and monitor the situation daily. Ditto in Turin 5. About reserve San Luigi: “For the time being, the current circuit guarantees us sufficient autonomy.”

What is worrisome is not the current stress on hospitals, but rather what could arise during the summer, especially in regard to vulnerable patients, and then weld with a new fall wave. Or the continuation of the current state, perhaps in the presence of more aggressive variants and seasonal influenza.

Hence the first concerns, coupled with some confusion. This is the state of logistics for existing patients or the so-called “Covid Islands”, referring to the possibility/opportunity to establish isolation areas of one or more rooms within specialized departments where patients who are hospitalized due to diseases other than Covid can be accommodated. A hypothesis advocated by a school of thought that counts among its advocates Sergio Levini, head of the hospital network, and Giovanni de Berry, head of infectious diseases at Amedeo, as an appropriate solution not to multiply Covid departments by subtracting space from others. To avoid repacking get rid of queues as well.

Moreover, the debate, which our newspaper has repeatedly reported in recent months and days, is not the prerogative of Piedmont but spreads across other regions. Whatever the case, the district makes clear, and no matter what you think of the “Covid Islands”, in the absence of the green light from the ministry, nothing will be done.

For now, the main approach remains the standard reopening of Covid wards in hospitals, in proportion to the increase in hospitalizations.