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Malaga's Hospital Clínico workers warn that emergency department is on the verge of collapse
Healthcare

Malaga's Hospital Clínico workers warn that emergency department is on the verge of collapse

Among the measures they have proposed is an increase of new beds, the recruitment of more staff and the improvement of coordination between different hospital units

Iván Gelibter

Malaga.

Friday, 31 January 2025, 12:04

Workers from the Hospital Clínico (Virgen de la Victoria) in Malaga city have raised their concerns regarding ever-increasing demands and the lack of technical and human resources in the accident and emergency department. On Wednesday, the hospital's staff criticised not only the "usual overload" of the emergency service, but also the "lack of measures" taken by the management to solve the situation, which they described as pushing the hospital to its limits.

"It is not possible that, every day, we have more than 35 patients pending admission, with peaks of up to 60: patients who are forced to wait in the overflowing emergency department, in very poor conditions," staff representatives said in a media statement.

Given this, the staff are calling for the management to stop "trying to trivialise the situation" and take "urgent measures" to solve the overload. Among the measures, they have proposed an increase of new beds, the recruitment of more staff and the improvement of coordination between different hospital units.

If hospital management does not respond to these demands, the workers have stated that they will be forced "to take other measures" to defend the rights of patients and workers. They have also addressed the public, urging them to join their demands and call for a solution to the problems at the emergency department at the Clínico.

Despite the serious nature of the statement, the health department sees the situation differently. Official sources consulted said that the increase in demand for urgent care at the hospital "although similar to what can usually be witnessed at this time of year due to respiratory pathology", has led to an increase in hospital admissions. "These needs, together with those of the usual activity of our centres, generate a decrease in the availability of free beds and, consequently, a delay in the admission of patients from the emergency department," they stated.

The same sources said that, since 7 January, the measures in the hospital's plan to tackle high demand have started to be implemented, such as the opening of new spaces, including the observation area of the respiratory circuit of the emergency department (equipped with five beds and two armchairs) and the medical hospitalisation floor of the Hospital Valle del Guadalhorce, where the number of beds has increased from 36 to 58 for patients in the Internal Medicine and Pneumology units.

At the same time, they stated that eight more beds have been set up in the Hospital Marítimo de Torremolinos, plus others have been made available in the intensive care department. With this said, they stated that "activity has been redirected" to shorten the hospital admission waiting period, which includes carrying out radiological diagnostic tests and cardiac ultrasound, among other procedures.

"The committee created by the hospital's management for monitoring activity held a meeting and activated all the action protocols agreed with the rest of the hospital units. Coordination and protocols have been implemented between the Primary Care and the 061 Emergency units, with hightened focus on those measures that help to reduce the pressure of care on busy days and hours, such as Mondays and Tuesdays," said the official sources. They also added that another measure taken to meet all these needs has been the recruitment of staff in various categories, which includes five doctors, thirteen nurses, eight auxiliary nursing care technicians, nine orderlies and four cleaners.

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surinenglish Malaga's Hospital Clínico workers warn that emergency department is on the verge of collapse