- In Britain, omicron is causing cracks in the health system even though the variant appears to cause milder illness than its predecessors.
- the Spanish government vowed not to let such a collapse happen again.
- He said Europe is prepared to handle isolated outbreaks as it has in the past
World Health Organization official warned last week of a “closing window of opportunity” for European countries to prevent their health care systems from being overwhelmed as the omicron variant produces near-vertical growth in coronavirus infections reports abc News.
Nations with strong national health programs
Two years into the pandemic, with the exceptionally contagious omicron impacting public services of various kinds, the variant’s effect on medical facilities has many reevaluating the resilience of public health systems that are considered essential to providing equal care.
The problem, experts say, is that few health systems built up enough flexibility to handle a crisis like a coronavirus before it emerged, while repeated infection spikes have kept the rest too preoccupied to implement changes during the long emergency.
Hospital admissions per capita right now are as high in France, Italy, and Spain as they were last spring when the three countries had lockdowns or other restrictive measures in place. Europe is prepared to handle isolated outbreaks as it has in the past, but the pandemic has exposed weakened foundations across entire health systems, even those considered among the world’s best.
Healthcare system in Britain for the current variant
In Britain, like France, omicron is causing cracks in the health system even though the variant appears to cause milder illness than its predecessors. The British government this month assigned military personnel, including medics, to fill in at London hospitals, adding to the ranks of service members already helping administer vaccines and operate ambulances.
Nearly 13,000 patients in England were forced to wait on stretchers more than 12 hours before a hospital bed opened, according to figures released last week from the National Health Service.
Britain’s NHS Confederation, a membership organization for sponsors and providers, says the public health service went into the pandemic with a shortage of 100,000 health workers that has only worsened.
France had been cutting back hospital beds and doctors and nurses for years before the pandemic. Building it back up in a matter of months proved too much when the current wave infected hospital staff by the hundreds each day.
The Spanish health system and the improvised healthcare
The first wave of the pandemic pushed Spain’s health system to its limit. Hospitals improvised ways to treat more patients by setting up ICUs in operating rooms, gymnasiums, and libraries. The public witnessed, appalled, retirees dying in nursing homes without ever being taken to state hospitals that were already well overcapacity.
After that, the Spanish government vowed not to let such a collapse happen again. Working with regional health departments, it designed what officials call “elasticity plans” to deal with sudden variations in service demands, especially in ICUs.
The idea is that hospitals have the equipment and, in theory, the personnel, to increase capacity depending on the need. But critics of government health policy say they’ve warned for years of inadequate hospital staffing, a key driver of the difficulty delivering care in the current wave.
In the same hospital’s infectious diseases unit, frantic schedulers are borrowing staff from elsewhere in the facility, even if it means non-COVID-19 patients get less care.
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Source: abc News
