The Health Minister of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, assured this Wednesday during his appearance in the plenary session of the regional Parliament that "the Canary Islands is prepared" to face an outbreak or resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic, since it can reach the capacity to install, within a maximum period of five days, between 1.5 and 2 intensive care beds per 10,000 inhabitants.
Trujillo, who appeared before the Plenary at the request of the Nueva Canarias parliamentary group to report on the measures to reinforce the number of Intensive Care Units (ICU) on the islands, explained that the first question he raised to his team when he assumed the position of Minister of Health was "whether the health system was prepared for an outbreak or resurgence of the pandemic", pointing out that the answer he found "is yes; the Canarian health system is prepared."
In this sense, he pointed out that the Transition Plan towards a new normality, published by the Ministry of Health on April 28, 2020, included the "essential requirement" of having the necessary strategic capacities to begin the de-escalation, specifically, the sufficiency of care capacity, both in primary care and in hospitals and ICUs.
Trujillo added that this requirement implies having, accessing or reaching the capacity, within a maximum period of five days, of between 1.5 and 2 Intensive Care beds per 10,000 inhabitants.
172 ICU beds to which 243 could be added
Currently, he stated that the Canary Islands, for a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, has 172 ICU beds, to which 243 more critical beds can be added with a ventilator to care for both critical patients with coronavirus and with other pathologies, "which raises the total capacity of public health to 415 critical beds."
In this way, he pointed out that, according to the strict criterion of availability of ICU beds, "the Canary Islands with 172 has a ratio of 0.80 beds per 10,000 inhabitants, below 1.5, but joining both categories it stands at 1.93, so it complies with the ratio established by the Ministry."
On the other hand, he explained that during the first wave of the pandemic, the Canarian Health Service (SCS) launched specific contingency plans that "have worked and that, in anticipation that the ICUs could be overwhelmed, other beds that could be assimilated were sought and adapted", such as those of the operating rooms themselves or resuscitation beds, which, duly equipped with equipment and ventilators, "could attend to a large peak in demand."
Trujillo assured that these critical beds "were never 100 percent occupied, although there was a significant increase in healthcare activity in the fight against the coronavirus", so in the first 15 days of April, when the greatest healthcare pressure was recorded, "at no time did critical patients with Covid-19 exceed an occupancy of 30 percent of that maximum capacity."
He also pointed out that the Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria University Hospital was the one that suffered the most pressure, with almost 40 patients in the ICU and 110 people on the ward, a situation that the HUC also had, with 150 people hospitalized and about twenty in the ICU.
Hiring of professionals
On the other hand, the Canarian Minister of Health stated that, in addition to the increase in the number of critical beds with ventilators, if the increase in seriously ill patients requires it, "the care areas that require it will be reinforced with the hiring of personnel and there will be availability of the means of protection that are necessary to avoid" the contagion of Covid-19 among professionals.
For this crisis, about 3,500 people were hired in different professional categories and in all management positions, with the Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria University Hospital requiring the most hires with almost 900; followed by the HUC, with more than 850, to which is added more than 59.5 million euros destined to the purchase of masks, gowns, gloves, protective glasses and all those materials "necessary for health workers to face the pandemic and there are strategic reserves on all the islands."
