[Elsa]

It would be interesting to sum up here all the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 situation? These inputs could also be presented to the upcoming workshop that iPS plans to organise in September.

[Sandra]

Hello Everyone!

I would like to highlight an organisational problem that COVID has made even more obvious: long working hours, especially 24-hour working hours. I’m aware some countries have been able to put an end to this practice, which has proved so harmful to the health of professionals and even to patient safety. In Spain unfortunately we still keep doing these crazy 24-hours shifts.

During covid 19 outbreak, some hospitals abolished these 24-hour shifts by changing them to 8-12 hours, as it proved impossible to keep professionals 24 hours without rest under the profound stress of the accumulation of hundreds of patients in emergency rooms, this added to the difficulty of spending long periods of time in a personal protective equipment.

Hopefully this would teach us to take care of our professionals as we take care of our patients, and to not leave them exposed to the physiological and psychological stress of long shifts.

Best,

[Elsa]

Hello Sandra,

Yes this has been also the case in Italy where because of the lack of the staff, nurses had to face very long working hours. I would be interested to read about the situation in other countries.

[Sandra]

Hello!

Also I would like to point out a problem that probably has affected many countries: Due to the sudden COVID-19 outbreak and the hospital collapse, we didn’t have the chance to keep any “clean hospital” meant to receive other pathologies. I think this is a huge mistake and certainly is a lesson to be learned in the event of a new outbreak. A lot of pathologies like cancer, chronic diseases, etc. haven’t been treated properly and that for sure will have consecuences in the future mortality and morbidity.

A possible solution for this could be to keep some hospitals or spaces “COVID free” to ensure that at least the most serious pathologies can be treated with a lower risk of aggravating their situation by getting COVID-19.

Best,

Sandra Rueda , MD