Hospital occupancy in Valencia decreases by 14% in a month

Saturday 6th March 2021 | MIKE SMITH

Hospitals and health centres in the Comunidad Valenciana have begun to look at resuming their activity in a very progressive way with the aim of returning to some sense of normality, providing that the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic in the region allows it.

Hospital occupancy has dropped by 14.6% over the past month, from 74.32% on January 27th to 63.5% registered this past week. This reduction has been reflected across all three provinces of the Comunidad Valenciana: in Castellón, occupancy has dropped from 66.86% at the end of January to 59.08% now; in Valencia, from 79.17% to 65.63%; and in Alicante, from 70.92% to 61.53%.

The number of people who have been hospitalised by COVID-19 has decreased considerably over the past month, from 58.57% at the end of the January to 15.31% this week. This has allowed the health service to look at a progressive return to normal care and activity in its hospitals and health centres.

Surgical operations that do not require ICU resume

The regional Ministry of Health has issued directives to the region’s Health Departments to look at returning to normal activity those resources that were relocated to face the increase of COVID-19 patients during the third wave of infections.

During this particularly infectious third wave of the pandemic, all hospitals activated their contingency plans and took a series of measures to be able to cover healthcare needs. Many hospitals installed additional beds, and in some cases, spaces such as the URPA (Post-Anesthetic Care Unit), the UCSI (Surgery Without Admission Unit), and surgical reception areas were converted into critical bed spaces, provided with all the necessary equipment. In addition, rooms such as gyms and rehabilitation spaces were adapted to be able to accomodate patients.

Now, at the beginning of March, these spaces are being returned to their normal use and practically all the surgical blocks in hospitals across the Valencian region have been able to carry out scheduled surgeries, as long as they don’t require ICU admission, unless they are specific urgent or priority cases.

Regarding non-priority cases, those that don’t require admission to ICU can be carried out and priority cases for major outpatient surgery are also being performed. In addition, scheduled admissions can be carried out, including those for diagnostic tests according to the contingency plan of the Department of Health.

With regards to external consultations, those in various specialities will return to normal, with in-person consultation allowed in accordance with the contingency plan and maintaining online consultation to avoid unnecessary travel of patients. In addition, staggered appointments will be established to avoid overcrowding in the centres.

Information Source
Press Release – Generalitat Valenciana