translated from Spanish: “We are not prepared”: President of the Confusam denounces covid-19 patient care in primary health

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, primary health officials have consistently reported poor conditions in which they find themselves in caring for patients with the disease.
In this regard, the president of the National Confederation of Municipal Health Officials (Confusam), Gabriela Flores, reported that people with Covid-19 positive are being assisted in the various Cesfam of the country, even though “we are taking on a role that is not our responsibility as primary care”.
“We are very concerned about the conditions in which the workers who are serving these shifts are, as the necessary protection elements are not available,” he told CNN Chile. 
“We have more than 1,107 COVID workers. We have 30 workers now hospitalized and of them, 6 in extreme gravity,” he said.
In his account, he mentioned that in some campuses in the Metropolitan Region, covid-19 patients are being held waiting for beds to be released in a hospital. “The time of these patients in some places has been two to three days,” he said, giving as examples the Cesfam Alberto Bachelet de Conchalí and Dr. Lucas Sierra from the same commune.
These patients are only fed “tea and biscuits,” as Flores adds. “We are not prepared for that and the skills have not been given to workers who have to fulfill this role,” he says.
Finally, on the call made a week ago by the Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, who asked primary care to collaborate in the traceability of the cases, Flores lamented “deeply that the minister is not aware or has not been informed that all this has been done in primary care and supporting the work that the mayors have asked us for long before”.

Original source in Spanish