“Already for a month now, from mid-June onwards, we in the emergency operations room have been recording a significant increase in calls. The climatic factor weighs heavily on these peaks, higher than those recorded in the previous three years. After all, the anomalous heat wave that characterizes this period means that in a much wider time slot than usual, from 10 to 20 in the evening, the perceived temperatures are very high, even around 40 degrees. impact on the most vulnerable people and which, for example, has the effect of exacerbating chronic diseases. The situation of the emergency rooms in the area that refers to our operations room? Are they overcrowded “. Giacomo Colzani, the Soreu subway manager, draws the picture at time.news Salute.
This regional emergency room for urgency, he explains, deals with an area that covers the province of Milan and Monza-Brianza, with the exception of Abbiatense and Legnanese which fall under another Soreu. “But the numbers reflect a bit of the whole Region”, she reflects. “Taking as an indicator the number of emergency calls arriving in the operations room and having as reference the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, we see an increase. If our operations room manages on average from 1,500 to 1,700 calls per day in times of tip, for a month now we have been above the ordinary: we are between 1,700 and 2,000 constant calls, so we are well beyond what are the normal peaks. in the number of average users who call 118. We do not have schools, recreational-sporting activities, meeting points. But the calls are equally high. So the climatic factor certainly affects the number of rescues “.
Are the calls for heatstroke? “Yes and no – clarifies Colzani – The calls can be for the most disparate factors: because the person breathes badly, because he is fainted, because he has low blood pressure. All this is often attributable to the exacerbation of symptoms of chronic diseases in a of fragile patients. For example, the elderly with already basic cardiological problems easily decompensates with these temperatures and needs to be transported to the hospital “. In a chain, “the emergency rooms appear to be overcrowded”.
The situation, continues the expert, “is patchy. The work of the operations room is also to better manage the rescue and send the user to the appropriate emergency room, but also less clogged. If today a structure and another is less so, the next day we try to balance the situation. But the main emergency rooms in the area, some more or less, are overcrowded these days. And it happens compared to a city with fewer people. fewer calls for situations such as falling in a school gym, certainly the events linked to the climatic factor weigh more. The three-year period taken as a reference has two particular years, marked by Covid and a reduced social life, but also compared to one year ‘normal’ sample like 2019, we appear to be above the threshold “, observes Colzani.
“There are times when it is more difficult and at certain times of the day when help is greater – therefore between noon and 14 and between 18 and 20 – there is an overcrowding of the emergency rooms and a lengthening of the process The situation is therefore this. We are not at guard levels, everyone is doing their part from the beginning to the end of the supply chain, the situation is still manageable, but undeniably there is significant pressure on the structures “.