BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Eyewitness: ‘Hospitals struggle to cope’
I have been wondering when these stories would come out: how a metropolitan city of about 2 million took on 1,200+ casualties from multiple bomb sites. Looks like they did well, and that their disaster plans worked. I really look forward to many more reports of the “this worked and this we could do better” variety.
What most folks don’t realize is that the every day emergencies keep occuring, and those neary completely saturate every ED I’ve ever been in. Staffing for everything, bed availability, etc., is all predicated on the number of ‘routine’ emergencies; the surge capacity isn’t all that big.
Kudos to the Spanish ED’s and their staffs. I hope they recover quickly.
Hello GruntDoc, I am a Spanish blogger and would like to point that the emergency services (SAMUR) of the Madrid region are generally recognised among the very best in the world.
Hi GruntDoc:
I’m a Spanish physician working in EMS in Galicia (061). I can tell you that SAMUR is very well equiped an they are well trained. Perhaps you don’t know that Spanish Health System suffers every day the “collapse” in the hospitals ER. I think this work in this way: everyday we have thounsands of “emergencies” that are no really emergencies, and that shoudn’t go to a hospital. In a mass casualty incident like this you only have to send all these people to home and assist the victims of bombs.
Bye.
Fascinating! Truly fascinating!