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The health department at the Junta de Andalucía reported on Monday that all hospitals have high-capacity generators that have been working since the power outage at 12.30pm.
In the radiation oncology service of the Materno Infantil (children's and maternity hospital), all the healthcare staff were at the door. Today they had planned to attend to 15 patients, but at around a quarter to one o'clock one of the patients was undergoing radiotherapy when the machine stopped halfway through.
"We were bringing up a patient and the machines stopped," one of the workers told this newspaper. At that time there were still eight patients to be treated.
In operating theatres and in the most important units where there are ventilators, for example, the doctors explained that there are electrical generators that allow critical situations to be dealt with.
In the emergency room, located next to radiation oncology, several relatives of patients were communicating with relatives to explain that the internet was down and that they were waiting for the doctors to tell them how they were going to proceed.
Some patients leaving the paediatric emergency department explained that everything continued to work in the same way, except that instead of calling them on screens, they were summoned to the consultation room with a microphone and their name and surname.
At the Hospital Civil, at the end of the afternoon, the flow of patients was continuous, and health professionals could also be seen leaving the centre, which has six operating theatres. Health sources explained that in one of them, four operations had been scheduled for today and the blackout occurred in the middle of the third. They were able to continue thanks to the hospital's powerful generators. The last one has been suspended until further notice.
Healthcare workers showed faces of concern or resignation at one of the centre's exits. "We have seen all the patients, we have been able to attend to the computer tests well. We had about 20 or so, the only one who was left unattended was a woman who had to have an MRI scan on the computer," explained a doctor who preferred not to reveal her name, while a colleague assured us that some sockets were working and some ultrasound scans could be carried out. "In the rehabilitation area, those who came to renew their prescriptions for medication or orthopaedics had no problems," said another doctor.
A doctor, who did not want to reveal her name, indicated that when the blackout occurred, she had an intubated patient in the operating theatre and they decided to go ahead as they have done on other occasions. Everything ended normally. "The generators continued to work," she explained.
A doctor specialising in clinical neurophysiology pointed out that his tests depend on electricity and, as they are not urgent but elective, "we have been able to treat 20 patients".
But then they had to stop, as many of the tests are "electrocardiograms", for which the use of electricity is essential. "Other medical specialities are more exploratory, where you can work with what the patient tells you and what you see when you examine them, so they have certainly continued to work, although without recording the results of the examination in the computer," explained this doctor, who added that perhaps the urgent operations have been carried out because the generators continue to work, but the less serious ones, for example those related to prostheses, have not been carried out if they have been able to be postponed. "The scheduled operating theatres will have been stopped."
Nor have the patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) had any problems thanks to the generators. "The most critical units are supplied by these generators," he explained.
Another worker admitted her dismay at the consultations this afternoon and tomorrow, as, at least in this area, only one company's telephone network is operating. "The rest can't even get a signal," she said. "Everything is at a standstill and this afternoon's consultations cannot be cancelled. If people don't have Movistar, they can't be notified," she said.
Among the patients, resignation and indignation were commonplace. Some women with reduced mobility, who used wheelchairs, complained that they had not been able to have an x-ray. A second patient in a wheelchair, suffering from poliomyelitis, said that she and her sister had gone shopping at the centre and, when they finished, they could not go home because neither the computer nor the lifts were working. "We'll go to a park and wait. Let's see how we get home to sleep," said this patient.
A couple returning to Yunquera after he had undergone prostate surgery said they did not know how they were going to get home from here, because they could not get in touch with their children as the telephone line was not working.
Other health sources have indicated that the 061 coordination centre is handling calls, and that the different units receive information on emergencies via emergency lines set up in the service, which are intended for use in situations such as this, and also by radio. In addition, the 112 telephone number continues to operate normally and also transfers cases that require the attention of 061. However, since half past midday, and until after two o'clock, one of the two ambulances had not attended to any situation, which could be due to the breakdown of the telephone networks.
"It has not yet been restored. This is bad. Let's see," says a doctor to a medical driver, who is still waiting at his post for the next call.
The driver of a scheduled transport ambulance said that he had no problem today, as he had all the patients for the morning and had no difficulty with the service. At the 061 headquarters of the hospital, an ambulance that was being charged, has attended one of the emergencies in a normal way.
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