Mild and chronic illnesses without a computer appointment fill the emergency room

The hospital emergency From the National Health System (SNS) live a Structural excess of patients It goes beyond those related to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the past two years, these specialists have seen a continuous increase in people who, due to their characteristics and the characteristics of their diseases, You should go to primary care, However, due to the poor condition of the first level of care, they chose to go to the emergency room for treatment as soon as possible.

“Since the end of the first confinement and in relation to Inefficiency of primary care for various reasons, There are a number of patients who go to the emergency room,” notes Iria Miguens Blanco, board member of the Spanish Society of Emergency and Emergency Medicine (CEMIS).

The time dependent pathology, It is a traditional treatment that is treated by specialists in the emergency department, is still prevalentbut regarding Patient profile ‘extraFilling in emergencies, Miguens Blanco notes they are finding ‘everything’ and each of these patients has ‘reason for counseling that residents prioritize’.

“There since then management doubtswhich is least to a Increase in more vulgar diseasesespecially in under 60 years old. This can be attributed to the fact that some of them are patients who could benefit from outpatient devices or first aid from their primary care physician, the specialist explains.

In this sense, Miguéns Blanco asserts that many patients go to the emergency room because primary care is “suffering and we notice”: “We also get Chronic disease patients What could there be Malfunctions prevented with previous intervention in primary care”.

Difficulties caring for ‘extra’ patients

As the emergency physician explained, the business of care in primary and emergency care is “totally different.” “We specialize in time-dependent diseases, although we present ourselves to everything as a network of the national health system that we are, but the work with primary care is very differentiated and we need to Everything works so that we devote ourselves to what we control, Miguéns Blanco claims.

The specialist does not want to speak quality care Offered, although he admits it looks affectedand deplores the existence of tasks that require a The ‘continuity of care’ they cannot provide. “Of course, we will pay attention to all types of patients, but there are other operations that, due to the shape of the system itself, do not correspond to us,” says the specialist.

According to Meggins, current situation “Cash” With a higher demand for the services they can provide, in addition, remember that employees are exhausted after the stress that was put into place during the toughest part of the pandemic. For this reason, the specialist considers it necessary take solutions To facilitate access to health centers and also to think about how the emergency department and its specialists are cared for.

“We have been through a few years of brutal wear and tear with the emotional consequences that are so much talked about, but the measures we expected have yet to be taken. We need to take careWe want to continue working, but in the best conditions,” he claims.