- Region
- Águilas
- Alhama de Murcia
- Jumilla
- Lorca
- Los Alcázares
- Mazarrón
- San Javier
-
ALL AREAS & TOWNS
- AREAS
- SOUTH WEST
- MAR MENOR
- MURCIA CITY & CENTRAL
- NORTH & NORTH WEST
- TOWNS
- Abanilla
- Abarán
- Aguilas
- Alamillo
- Alcantarilla
- Aledo
- Alhama de Murcia
- Archena
- Balsicas
- Blanca
- Bolnuevo
- Bullas
- Cañadas del Romero
- Cabo de Palos
- Calasparra
- Camping Bolnuevo
- Campo De Ricote
- Camposol
- Canada De La Lena
- Caravaca de la Cruz
- Cartagena
- Cehegin
- Ceuti
- Cieza
- Condado de Alhama
- Corvera
- Costa Cálida
- Cuevas De Almanzora
- Cuevas de Reyllo
- El Carmoli
- El Mojon
- El Molino (Puerto Lumbreras)
- El Pareton / Cantareros
- El Raso
- El Valle Golf Resort
- Fortuna
- Fuente Alamo
- Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort
- Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort
- Isla Plana
- Islas Menores & Mar de Cristal
- Jumilla
- La Azohia
- La Charca
- La Manga Club
- La Manga del Mar Menor
- La Pinilla
- La Puebla
- La Torre
- La Torre Golf Resort
- La Unión
- Las Palas
- Las Ramblas
- Las Ramblas Golf
- Las Torres de Cotillas
- Leiva
- Librilla
- Lo Pagan
- Lo Santiago
- Lorca
- Lorquí
- Los Alcázares
- Los Balcones
- Los Belones
- Los Canovas
- Los Nietos
- Los Perez (Tallante)
- Los Urrutias
- Los Ventorrillos
- Mar De Cristal
- Mar Menor
- Mar Menor Golf Resort
- Mazarrón
- Mazarrón Country Club
- Molina de Segura
- Moratalla
- Mula
- Murcia City
- Murcia Property
- Pareton
- Peraleja Golf Resort
- Perin
- Pilar de la Horadada
- Pinar de Campoverde
- Pinoso
- Playa Honda
- Playa Honda / Playa Paraíso
- Pliego
- Portmán
- Pozo Estrecho
- Puerto de Mazarrón
- Puerto Lumbreras
- Puntas De Calnegre
- Region of Murcia
- Ricote
- Roda Golf Resort
- Roldan
- Roldan and Lo Ferro
- San Javier
- San Pedro del Pinatar
- Santiago de la Ribera
- Sierra Espuña
- Sucina
- Tallante
- Terrazas de la Torre Golf Resort
- Torre Pacheco
- Totana
- What's On Weekly Bulletin
- Yecla
- EDITIONS: Spanish News Today Alicante Today Andalucia Today
ARCHIVED - More than half of the critical care beds in the Murcia Region are already filled with covid patients
Three hospitals have already reached maximum capacity in their ICU beds and are having to transfer critical patients to another hospital
On Monday the Murcian Regional Health Minister, Manuel Villegas, warned that within two weeks the resources of the regional health service, the SMS, would be on the verge of collapse if the numbers of covid patients continued to rise at the current rate and as the week has progressed, beds have continued to fill, the result being that by Thursday more than half of the total number of intensive care beds in Murcian hospitals were full and three of the six hospitals with intensive care departments were being forced to divert critical patients to other hospitals.
Murcia now has more patients in intensive care than at the peak of the first wave of covid in the spring, the region paying the price for the summer holidays, family get-togethers, meals with friends and parties held by younger people, and although doctors accept that they now have experience in dealing with covid patients, there are now medications available to improve the situation in some cases, there is more equipment and PPE available and hospitals have been able to prepare over the summer for the anticipated rise in case numbers this autumn, they also admit to being extremely worried about the current rise in cases, particularly the increasing numbers of care home residents testing positive.
All that however, doesn´t change the fact that the Murcia Region only has 115 intensive care beds, which is normally more than sufficient to cope with the daily needs of the region; but the covid pandemic is not a normal situation and doctors working within the regional health service are openly expressing their pre-occupation about the rising numbers.
Added to that are patients not requiring ventilation, but still in a serious condition, all of whom must be isolated to prevent the virus spreading throughout the hospitals; the resources required to care for these patients are also considerably higher than normal wards.
Some expat social media sites are still full of people arguing that 50 patients in intensive care is just the media scaremongering and exaggerating, and doesn´t warrant what they see as the level of “hysteria over covid”, but they have no comprehension of what resources are required to care for even 6 patients on ventilators needing intensive attention 24/7.
Murcia is a small region with only 1.5 million population, but at the moment is in eighth position amongst the 17 autonomous regions of Spain for the number of cases per head of population. Spain, in turn, has the highest number of covid cases in Europe, so the number of cases is relative to the number of population, and in turn, the health service resource available within the region to handle them.
So when the regional health minister warns that the health service is on the verge of being overwhelmed, which is not an admission any serving politician is happy to make, least of all the man who has political responsibiloity for ensuring the health service runs smoothly, it has to be taken as fact that he knows what he's talking about and isn´t "scaremongering", but trying to warn those who are still in denial in spite of the overwhelming evidence of what is currently unfolding around us, that precautions should be taken to protect those who are most vulnerable to covid, ie the elderly and infirm.
It's incomprehensible that so many foreign residents should be so aggressively dismissive of what is happening, given the average age of the expat population living here!
At the moment, the solution to the lack of ICU beds is that when one hospital is full, patients are being transferred to other hospitals.
Lorca, for example, can only handle 12 intensive care patients ( it actually only has six intensive care beds, but is also using six from its surgical reanimation and recovery area to bring the total up to 12) and is at full capacity now, so is having to divert its covid patients requiring intensive care to other hospitals.
The Reina Sofía in Murcia is also at máximum intensive care capacity and is now turning its surgical recovery and reanimation facilities over to accommodate covid intensive care patients and the Morales Meseguer, also in Murcia, is in the same position.
At the moment the Los Arcos hospital in San Javier is under the least pressure so is now receiving patients from other areas; the patient who died there on Thursday transferred from Moratalla in the north-west.
The hospitals are responding to the current level of new admissions by turning their surgical areas over to intensive care facilities, which in total will triple the capacity of the region, but the pressure this will place on the current staffing levels will in turn, create its own problems as there simply aren´t enough highly qualified intensive care nursing staff available anywhere for hire to handle this level of critical care patients.
And turning over beds usually dedicated to surgical patients means that the hospitals will be unable to undertake non-urgent surgical procedures, exacerbating the backlog caused by the covid situation in the spring; most minor procedures scheduled for this autumn/winter have been cancelled across the region already.
During the last week alone, 193 covid patients have been admitted to hospitals in the region, 28 of them to intensive care wards.
This brings the occupancy level to 9% of the total beds available (the national average is now just over 7%), with 337 covid patients hospitalised, and 62 in intensive care, 54% of total ICU capacity.
This is the highest number of patients in ICU since the pandemic began; 59 was the highest total to date, reached at the end of March.
Hospital staff say the “good news” is that the length of time patients are having to spend in hospital in shorter, but admit that as the number of cases continues to rise, the number of admissions is now becoming “seamless” as one patient after another is admitted and the numbers are growing.
On Thursday the region reached yet another record high, with 456 new positives, and although the majority are mild cases, all of these people still have to go into quarantine and be supervised by staff from the health authorities to make sure they comply with quarantine regulations and are not developing complications while they quarantine at home. Tracers are also trying to follow-up on their close contacts to ensure that they too are tested, a mammoth task, with the current total of active cases now at 5,452.
And although some expat social media pages are dismissive of the current fatalities, by the 10th September, the number of deaths this month had reached 10, exceeding the total for the whole of August which was 8. It’s worth bearing in mind that there were only two deaths in the whole of June and only one in July.
Current totals in intensive care:
Rafael Méndez Lorca: 14
Morales Meseguer Murcia: 14
Reina Sofía Murcia: 11
Virgen de la Arrixaca Murcia: 10
Santa Lucía Cartagena: 9
Los Arcos san Javier : 4