Posted on 01/05/2024 1:12:19 PM PST by nickcarraway
The worst situation is in Rome and its region, where more than 1,100 patients are waiting to be admitted, according to the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care.
Just a few days ago, ambulances were queuing outside hospitals in Rome. In other regions, such as Lombardy, patients are crammed into waiting rooms until a bed becomes available.
In cities such as Turin, hospital overcrowding has even led to a shortage of stretchers for patients.
Emergency departments in Italian hospitals are in chaos and on the verge of collapse.
The worst situation is in Rome and its region, where more than 1,100 patients are waiting to be admitted, according to the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care (Simeu).
"We are trying to guarantee the service, but we are in an extremely difficult situation," Simeu president Fabio de Laco explained.
According to Simeu, the number of patients waiting in Piedmont has reached some 500, while in Lombardy and its capital, Milan, normal hospital admissions have been suspended in order to "free up" some beds for emergencies.
What is behind the hospital collapse?
The rise in hospital admissions, which has put pressure on the Italian health system, is due to an increase in "respiratory diseases, especially among the elderly".
"Covid has slightly decreased in the last week, flu is spreading, but other viruses have also caused 'overcrowding' in hospitals and a very strong pressure on emergency services," De Laco explained on Tuesday, according to local media.
In fact, in the week before Christmas, from December 18 to 24, "the influenza epidemic curve showed an incidence value never reached in previous seasons," according to the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Higher Institute of Health.
And the situation is far from stabilising, according to the Italian agency itself.
"Several regions have activated plans to combat overcrowding in hospitals and health companies in order to find additional beds, but since hospital beds are chronically scarce, in practice there is nothing else to do but take beds away from other specialties, such as surgery. Of course, this does not solve the problem," De Laco said.
As the situation worsens, doctors are becoming exhausted and there are a number of alarming articles in the Italian press: "Hospitals on the brink" was one headline in La Repubblica.
No rest for doctors
The president of the Simeu has pointed out that many doctors in Italy's public health system have not been able to rest over Christmas and New Year.
Holidays are a "luxury", he said, citing the Piedmontese capital as an example: "In Turin, for example, we didn't count on holidays over the Christmas period" and "the vast majority of doctors worked without interruption throughout the period".
Experts have urged Italians to get vaccinated, as the peak of influenza - expected next week when schools reopen after the holidays - has not yet been reached.
UK junior doctors stage longest-ever strike in NHS history over pay dispute Regional councillors from the centre-left Democratic Party, Massimiliano Valeriani and Emanuela Droghei, visited two hospitals in the capital on Tuesday, the Umberto I and Sant'Andrea polyclinics, where they found a "very complex" situation due to the "large number of patients".
Both complained of "blocked ambulances, postponed operations, clogged emergency rooms and beds blocked by covid patients, all because of a vaccination campaign that started late".
RSV was rarely seen in adults prior to covid shots. Now it’s a lot more frequent. Wonder why?
Sounds like all the Chinese expats returned to Italy after their holiday visits to China.
There has been a strong flu going around. Or is it COVID? Or is it actually the flu? Simply miraculous that the flu, which had disappeared here while Covid was supposedly running rampant the last few years, has magically reappeared here.
Unlike America, right? Lol!
I didn’t say that. What is happening in Italy will happen here too after admitting the sick invaders.
>>> all because of a vaccination campaign that started late”.
So the UK doctors are complaining about being overworked due to not enough “vaccines” soon enough.
I call BS.
The doctors who could have prevented this were fired for speaking out AGAINST the “vaccinations”!
These IDIOT doctors are getting what they asked for.
The US is still a babe in the woods.
Thank you for the insight. As an aside, I watched the Mafia Only Kills in Summer series. It is about Palermo during the 1970 as seen through the eyes of a child. It sort of had a bittersweet Il Postino vibe to it.
It was always around with most infections in infants & oddlers and the elderly. And, it always had years it waxed and years it waned.
It might have surged after Covid because a lot of people’s immune systems were lowered during all the lockdowns.
Immune systems that are isolated don’t make as many small encounters by which the immune system is improved.
Yes . The Italians haven’t rid Milan
of that menace.
these dirty infected Chinese invaded again and Italy allowed it . fools
I watched a couple of interviews with Geert Vander Bosch (sp.), a virologist, from Belgium,I think, -very upset about JN.1.
I am not good with accents, but what I got was that this variant was doing something different than the prior variants that terrified him.
My explanation is pretty rough - he thinks this variant has the potential to seriously harm and kill many people because it bypasses the Covid spike proteins, and go after t ells, or something, and the damaged immune systems (caused by the jabs) can’t then fight off the opportunistic infections that set in.
This looks like he might be right, and he made it very clear that he didn’t want to be right. It is worth hunting him up to double check my understanding of what he explained… I hope he is wrong, of course. He thought we would know soon if it was going to happen, and now this report seems to me to support his fears.
My cousin is a minister and has lived in Italy since 1973. They’re real snooty about the wonderfulness of Italy. But whenever there’s a major medical issue, they’re beating cheeks back to the good ol’ US of A for treatment.
Of course it still controls drugs and prostitution and a lot of politicians here. But the days of murdering shopkeepers who refuse to pay protection money are over.
Sicily is very safe now and very Old School. I do miss some things about living in the US but all in all I love it here. No DEI, no LGBTXYZ and no lunatic ferals running amok.
Are these the same fake pictures and reports foisted on the world from 2020?
Vax. Clear the way for the trees.
If you buy a leather jacket made in Italy, many factories are not only owned by the Chinese but also worked in by the Chinese. Many of these are the people who returned to Italy after spending 2020 Chinese New Year in China and brought with them COVID-19.
What percent jabbed are Italians?
When the immigration backlash comes, and it will, it won’t be pretty.
One would almost think there was a US Election cycle coming up.
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