Hospitals in Thessaloniki have exceeded their limits, with shortages and job vacancies making the situation even more difficult. The suspensions of thousands of health workers have further aggravated the situation, as new specialized personnel have been added to the chronic shortages. According to the doctors in Thessaloniki, in order to fill the gaps, doctors of other specialties are recruited who are called with a few days of training to take care of coronavirus patients.
Psychiatrists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, radiologists and other specialties must leave their patients to be transported to a coronavirus bed until they learn "safe intubation of patients" through fast-paced courses.
The issue is highlighted by Antonis Tsolnaras in a report on thesstoday.gr, who spoke with doctors and the administration about the issue. The outgoing president of the Association of Hospital Doctors of Thessaloniki (ENITH), Daphne Katsimba in her statements stressed that laboratory doctors in Papageorgiou, Papanikolaou, Ippokratio and AHEPA have already moved to the covid clinics, characterizing this move as "critical".
"Dermatologists and ophthalmologists have been transferred to Papageorgiou in the covid clinics. Also, for the past two months, Papanikolaou psychiatrists have been transferred to the covid clinics of the hospital. The same happens in Ippokratio, in AHEPA and everywhere ", stressed Ms. Katsimba, pointing out that especially in Papanikolaou, the director of psychiatry made a personal complaint because the patients remain unattended, resulting in a lot of obvious and internal phenomena cases of patients showing aggressive and suicidal tendencies.
"It is dangerous for a psychiatrist to move and enter a covid clinic. "It's as if the psychiatric patients - but also the others around them who suffer because they have violent behavior, even criminal or suicidal tendencies - are for throwing away," she added.
4th RAE Commander: Psychiatrists can assist in various positions
For his part, the commander of the 4th RAE, Dimitris Tsalikakis clarified in the same report that the "helping hand" of doctors of other specialties is not related to the intubation of patients. "We will not force psychiatrists to do intubation, however they will be able to help in various positions, such as how to get gas or oxygen from a patient," said Mr. Tsalikakis.
However, Daphne Katsimba, refuting the statements of the commander of the 4th RAE, pointed out the fact that many doctors of other specialties have resigned because they are used in covid clinics, pointing out that to get a specialty requires five years of training and not fast courses.
"Does fast education mean that the ophthalmologist will become a physician when he wants five or six years for his specialty?" "Others who have been taken to clinics that can not cope have resigned, the staff is dramatically reduced for this reason", she stressed, adding that "in the Emergency Departments (ICUs) of Finikas they trained and put people to intubate which were unrelated to intubation ".
Patients will not be monitored safely
As Ms. Katsiba explains, the transfer of doctors from various departments to covid clinics "does not mean that patients with coronavirus will be safely monitored", as, as she claims, "they can not offer medical help that can be offered by a physician, infectious disease specialist" or pulmonologist ".
For her, the problem with the huge gaps in the hospitals is solved only with staff recruitment and not with the fast-paced courses. "Currently we have 35.000 vacancies for all NSS staff, more than 6.000 are for doctors and no recruitments are made. "Around 2.500 people have submitted papers, which must be recruited," he said.
AHEPA: Employees are concerned about the fast-paced seminars
The employees of the AHEPA hospital in Thessaloniki are particularly concerned as information states that, due to the significant shortcomings, specialties such as psychiatrists, microbiologists or radiologists are expected to be thrown on the front line of the battle with the pandemic.
This concern started in mid-September when they were informed that, by order of the administration of the 4th RAE, "fast-paced seminars" are being held for hospital doctors of other specialties in regional hospitals in Northern Greece.
The specific letter for the rapid training was sent to the commanders of the hospitals of Serres, Drama, Xanthi and Komotini, provoking the reactions of the employees, who with successive announcements pointed out that "with a three-hour training in a model we can not safely cover the cases and hospitalized patients ".
The letter
And with the siege in the hospitals "tightening" from the pressure it receives due to the increased numbers of intubated, in various departments of AHEPA employees (psychiatric, microbiological, radiological, etc.) there is an uproar for their impending burden exclusively with the coronary cases. , as they say they are called to make critical decisions in a hot field that has no specialization and has to do with intubation of patients.
The president of the Workers' Union of AHEPA, Charalambos Koroxenos stressed to ThessToday.gr that "the commander of the 4th RAE after information I have from the psychiatric clinic put these doctors to do a month of rapid training for safe intubation of patients."
Lifelong learning of doctors answers the commander
On the other hand, the commander of the 4th RAE, Dimitris Tsalikakis added to ThessToday.gr that intubation is a medical procedure, it is the code "blue", it has nothing to do with imperative. It's part of doctors' lifelong learning, where everyone has to learn some things. But not the psychiatrists, these will be taught by the basic specialties, such as the pathological and surgical specialties ".
Dimitris Tsalikakis also claims that this plan, which has already been activated in the four regional hospitals, has nothing to do with covid incidents. "It's wrong to connect. "It's supposed that all doctors have done intubation at some point - either in their school or in surgeries, whether they are pulmonologists or otolaryngologists - but intubation does not mean that we are replacing, for example, anesthesiologists," said the commander of the 4th RAE.
As Mr. Tsalikakis continues, "Normally everyone in the hospital should know a few things, in the context of general emergency training and do not need to be covid", while regarding AHEPA he stressed that "We do not have anything planned at the moment or in the near future", and pointed out that "On the other hand, psychiatrists are also able to help with various things, such as how to get gas or oxygen from a patient.", he said.
AHEPA Commander: "There is no suggestion - Intubation is not cooking"
The commander of AHEPA Panagiotis Panteliadis claims through ThessToday.gr that so far "there is no information and no suggestion on the issue of rapid education". As he characteristically stated "the intubation is not culinary, there are no reports or suggestions for fast-paced courses", while he pointed out that the seminars were held in special hospitals of the Region in order to be able to receive some incidents. It was not to cover the units and in no case does it concern AHEPA ".
The director of the ICU at AHEPA, Eleni Geka in her statements to ThessToday.gr stressed that has not been informed of upcoming courses by doctors of other specialties to cope with covid incidents. He even added that a fast-paced training can help the employee understand the needs of the patient, however, as he claims, "he can not become an expert with a month and a half of seminars."
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