The second wave of Covid-19 infections is having a special impact in Ceuta. The city is inevitably approaching 200 active cases and fifteen people are admitted to the University Hospital, five of them in the Intensive Care Unit, which has seven beds. There is not enough to do PCR on people with clear symptoms of coronavirus, or their direct contacts, and the monitoring of the inmates is done intermittently given the limited means available.
However, the central government assures that the situation is under control and that Ingesa has contingency plans to guarantee health care. This is what the Executive of Pedro Sánchez points out in response to several questions from the national VOX deputy for Ceuta, Teresa López, who questioned the ability of Ingesa to face a second wave of infections with only seven ICU beds, expandable if cancel operations. A situation in which VOX has already requested, in the first stage of the pandemic, that the Military Hospital be enabled and that a medicalized ship be sent to be able to attend to Covid-19 cases if they were triggered.
"At the University Hospital of Ceuta, the intensive care unit can immediately increase the current number of beds by more than 200%, all of them equipped with invasive breathing therapy," says the Executive, who does not specify the number of beds . In addition, he adds that, in the case of Melilla, the UCI expanded its capacity by 117%, enabling other dependencies of the center. However, the number of specialists who attend the ICU, the intensivists, has not increased and in Ceuta there are only three to cope with the increase in cases, as VOX has been able to contrast.
"Until now, a lack of ICU beds has not been detected and the University Hospital has a sufficient number of postsurgical resuscitation beds," also points out the Social Communist Government, since in case of need they would choose to occupy them. However, in Melilla he points out that specific post-surgical recovery beds have been set up in other units of the hospital so that the surgical activity is not compromised.
Meanwhile, regarding the templates, the Government affirms that Ingesa has proceeded to increase them as planned in its contingency plans. Of course, it neither gives numbers nor specifies in which areas new personnel have been hired. The Executive only points out that “the increases in some areas such as Microbiology, Preventive Medicine, Hospital Emergencies and Primary Care are significant. Again, it is obvious to speak of those who must attend the most serious cases in the ICU. Meanwhile, the unions insist on the lack of personnel and the overload of staff in the face of this second wave of Covid-19 infections.
Primary Care Template
Precisely in the area of Primary Care, the Government does specify the number of workers in the workforce before another question from the national VOX deputy for Ceuta. López, after the complaints from the College of Physicians, asks about the templates of health centers and the forecasts to increase them. The Executive indicates that in Ceuta there are 197 Primary Care workers and 206 in Melilla and that by Ingesa "it is understood that they are sufficient to carry out ordinary activity."
Faced with the increased workload suffered by health professionals, López also questioned the Government to find out why Ingesa was not going to offer its workers a Covid-19 supplement, which in other communities will be paid. After the complaint about the Medical Union, the VOX deputy asked the Government if it was going to rectify, but the answer has been that "no Covid-19 supplement is planned." However, in an ambiguous way, it indicates that increases in activity will be taken into account and will be paid when the variable productivity of 2020 is paid.
061 Terms of Service
Finally, the Executive responds to López's questions about the shortcomings of the 061 Emergency Service in the autonomous cities, claiming that it will study the situation. The Medical Union denounced that the workforce is insufficient and that the working hours are higher than those of another group with the same turnicity, as well as the assistance activity with services that did not exist previously or that were carried out by other sectors, such as the OPE, nursing homes, or CETIs.
The Government refers to the fact that the working conditions are stipulated in an agreement signed in 2007. However, it points out that they can be addressed again if the signed agreement “does not respond to the current situation” and calls for change in a new Sector Board where the situation of the 061 workers is studied and negotiated. Although it does not give places to meet with the unions and give a boost to the changes that they have been demanding for years.