Son Llàtzer’s 26 Intensive Care Units will reopen for Covid-19 patients in the next few days, according to IB-Salut.
Staff problems arose when short contracts for nurses and holiday staff were not renewed and many nurses were seconded to help trace the contacts of coronavirus positive patients.
There are 18 ICU beds available at Son Llàtzer Hospital and it’s possible to increase that to 32 if necessary.
IB-Salut has denied Satse and Simebal claim that critical patients could not be admitted on Tuesday and argued that if necessary patients would have been transferred to other hospitals on the island.
In the last 15 days at least 8 patients have been transferred from Son Llàtzer Hospital to Son Espases Hospital.
Deputy Director of Hospital Care, Francesc Albertí acknowledged that there are problems at Son Llàtzer Hospital, because all of the beds are occupied and it was not possible to cover staff holidays, but insists that the problem will be solved in the coming days.
Albertí is adamant that the health service is not in danger of collapse and he also denied that seriously ill patients were not being admitted to the ICU.
“In anticipation of an increase in critical patients, Son Llàtzer Hospital is following the contingency plan adopted in August, with one space dedicated to Covid-19 patients and another to non-Covid-19 patients and 26 beds are available,” said IB-Salut.
At the beginning of September the hospital's Surgical Resuscitation Unit was enabled for Covid-19 patients with capacity for six beds.