“The living room is an oven, but the treatment room too. It’s a space from which sick people can’t escape for several hours.”
Portugal continues to cross a wave of Extreme heat. But it’s not just here: Spain There will be several points near or even over 40 degrees this week.
In Galicia, more precisely in Pontevedra, high temperatures are a problem within hospitals. They are really generating a serious evil-being between patients e professionals health, especially in old facilities such as the Provincial Hospital.
Air conditioning systems and portable equipment were installed; But the needs persist, aggravating the days when the outside temperature is approaching 30 degrees, the newspaper describes.
There has been complaint In several units, but especially in the Provincial Dialysis Unit. Nurse Victor Pérez describes the situation as “unbearable” In the afternoon shift.
That unit has large glazed surfaces and machines that release heat, accumulating temperature throughout the day. The climatization system, obsolete, is not enough.
With the temperature going up throughout the day, who works in the morning shift still “naughty” but who works in the afternoon goes through a “inferno”, says nurse Victor Pérez.
The heat has already caused dizziness and tension breaks In patients, while staff tries to deal with the situation: uniform or improvise methods to cool off.
Although management is studying improvements and reinforcing with portable units, the solutions are not arrived. Patients stay for hours in a row in rooms where heat becomes suffocating, and employees look for fresher moments in air conditioning offices.
“The living room is an oven, but the treatment room as well. It is a space from which the sick cannot escape for several hours“It sums up the nurse.
In a private hospital, Quironsalud Miguel Domínguez, the problems are repeated: the kitchen assistants work in a underground No ventilation, surrounded by frozers, steam and moisture ovens.
The temperature can reach 32 degrees but the measurements are not made with a homologated thermometer.
Employees in the kitchen have thick, long -sleeved uniforms, who have to wash every day – and There is no laundry service at the hospital. And they go through physically demanding days, almost without breaks: the shifts extend from 8am to 10pm (and in August, extend at dawn).
The only form of relief is to enter the fridge For brief moments, as they have no prolonged breaks – the maximum is a 15 -minute break.
