When one year after the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic in the country, more than a thousand patients have had to be air-transferred to other regions to be treated for the virus.
Specifically, there are 1,069 patients until last Friday who have been transferred to other regions. The first case of a person transferred to another region was on 15 March 2020, just 12 days after the first case of covid-19 was detected in Talca.
Data from the Central Metropolitan Health Service (SSMC) recorded by Emol indicate that 139 critical patients were transferred from Santiago due to high demand in intensive care units. The figure rose to 422 in November, and to 582 in January.
January (215), February (178) and March (118) are the months in which the largest number of patients have moved. In fact, nearly half of total mobilizations (48%) were performed during these three months.
In this regard, the director of SSMC, Dr. Patricia Méndez, told Emol that this situation “graphs the intensity of the work being done. Especially with the increase in transfers on the FACh Hercules aircraft, where up to four patients are evacuated at once next to the METROPOLITAN SAMU on each flight.”
For his part, the public-private coordinator of pre-hospital management of the covid patient, Rodrigo Hernández, raised that “this reflects that we are in the second wave, and also reflects the increased occupation of ICU beds throughout the country. We are between regions with variable figures, but between 90 and 95%, and also made more transfers, which has allowed us to bring patients from areas that were more occupied to areas with less occupancy.”
“No one has lacked a bed, not a fan, nor an ICU quota. We have not had any complications or a pacienet has died in the transfer, reaching all properly to their destinations,” he added.
Antofagasta outpertoded Santiago in egress
As of 14 February, 95 patients were transferred, 88 from the Antofagasta region, exceeding 55 transfers in 10 months of pandemic by 2020 in the northern region.
In fact, between late February and March, Antofagasta surpassed Santiago as the city with the most patient transfers, as the most transfers were made from the capital during the first wave of the pandemic.
