Chile: only 35 intensive care beds are available in Santiago and the occupancy rate reaches 99%

This Wednesday they met that the metropolitan region of Chile achieved the second highest critical bed occupancy rate in the country, reaching 99% occupancy of these resources. Currently, 35 are available out of the 2,571 activated in this area.

The information was provided by the media The third, which indicated that until June 1, the metropolitan region was only overtaken by the region of Aysén, located in the south of Chile, whose area has been strongly compromised by the coronavirus, and where there are no longer any of the ten critical beds available.

The report published today also pointed out that from this Tuesday there was an upward variation in intensive care unit (ICU) admissions across the country, which has been maintained throughout this past week, reaching a 5.5% increase over the past seven days.

In addition, at the national level It has been identified that 147 critical beds are available out of the 4,450 available, which would be equivalent to a sustained 97% occupancy. Regions like Tarapacá or Los Ríos, They had 62 and 41 beds available at the start, in the last few hours they only had one.

These figures show, according to published information, that the last hours have become the third worst day for the metropolitan area since the start of the pandemic, exceeded only on June 27, 2020, when 23 beds were available, and June 6, 2020, when 20 were enumerated.

All of the above will oblige the authorities to, In the coming hours, efforts will be stepped up to expand the availability of critical beds to 5,000 units “To be able to absorb the demand”, according to the projections that they treat of the Networks of Health.

Remember that this Wednesday, the national COVID-19 report shows a slight decrease in daily infections: 5,631 cases have been detected in the last 24 hours, in addition to the 41 new deaths which add to the 29,385 in total, since the start of the pandemic in the country.

Measures to avoid collapse

Information collected by the Ministry of Health raise the alarm of the authorities. For this reason, it is that different strategies are put in place to prevent the system from collapsing for good.

The coordinator of critical beds of the Ministry of Health, Luis Castillo, pointed out that from now on An attempt will be made to remedy this situation with the operation of primary care and all its emergency areas during these 24 hours..

But it was also expected that it will be ordered to assess the urgency of the patients. It means that, if a patient suffers from respiratory problems, they should go to a health facility, but in case you don’t have this complication, the affected person should go to primary care services.

The Chilean Ministry of Health also pointed out that a greater availability of intermediate beds will be created which will be available at the San Borja Hospital or the Geriatric Institute.

“The idea is to keep the flow dynamic, so those waiting for an intensive care bed and ventilator can enter. The intermediate beds will be a complement to the critical beds, and they will allow us to maintain intensive care occupancy rates between 80% and 90%, ”Castillo said.

The high bed occupancy rate and the high demand for the Chilean health system It even led the authorities to decide to suspend the activities programmed in the pavilions. That is, at least in the metropolitan area, these activities will be suspended.

According to Castillo, despite the resumption of activities in the pavilion for two weeks, the interruption is likely to last “several weeks, as long as necessary”, and that in the case of the regions of the country, “it will be modulated by the directors of the health services, according to their demand for beds”.

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