Viral infections overload Spain’s healthcare system

OVIEDO, Spain

Spain is witnessing spike in COVID-19 and flu cases during the holiday season, overloading the country’s healthcare system.

Pascual Pinera, vice president of Spain’s emergency medicine society (SEMES), told EFE news agency that emergency rooms are already saturated, even though the number of infections is expected to continue increasing.

“Right now we are suffering the consequences of social interaction from Christmas. In the next week, we’ll see the results of New Year’s Eve. Then, in the third week of January, infections should reach their peak after the Three Kings' Day celebrations and the return to classrooms,” Pinera said.

In the major La Paz Hospital in Madrid, a union has already complained that 105 patients are waiting in beds placed in hallways to be admitted. It warned that the situation could become disastrous in the case of fires or the need to evacuate, and say it is a symptom of the “general deterioration of Madrid’s public health system.”

While the seasonal pattern of viral infections is to be expected, Pinera said there are 35% more patients in Spanish emergency rooms this year than last.

Marciano Sanchez Bayle, spokesperson of the public health association FADSP, told broadcaster Onda Cero of a “a major bottleneck” in primary care clinics. He explained that many people are unable to get appointments with their doctors in the coming days or weeks, so they are instead flocking to emergency rooms, further clogging up the system.

With the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in the rearview mirror, many Spaniards have relaxed their habits of masking, hygiene, ventilation, getting vaccinated and isolating when sick — something that the country’s new health minister, Monica Garcia, urged Spaniards to do amid the spike in infections.

While Spain saw one of the highest COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates after the lockdowns, it is now lagging. According to Onda Cero, around 50% of the high-risk population has received a flu jab, well below the World Health Organization goal of 75%.

Experts are reminding people that it is not too late to get their vaccines, with the flu vaccine campaign open until the end of January.