BH resumes elective surgeries four months after suspension; The SUS “waiting list” has 33,000 people | Minas Gerais

While Cristiano waits, who is unemployed, he needs medication to control his kidney colic. in this period , She lost 20 kg and is afraid that the delay will lead to other health problems.

“The pain is under control, but other problems appear, the organs inside seem to be under pressure, and the kidneys are swollen,” he said.

Just on Monday morning (30), Cristiano, the second city hall in Belo Horizonte, had a preoperative consultation at the Hospital Metropolitan Dr. Celio de Castro. “The pre-operative consultation is permission from the municipal health department to carry out the procedure,” the municipal administration said.

But Cristiano says he still needs the anesthesiologist, scheduled for September 30 only, to schedule the procedure.

“The doctor said the hardest part was getting here. Now I think the surgery should be in late October or early November,” he said.

Stories like Cristiano are becoming more and more popular during the pandemic. Currently, 33,000 people are waiting for elective surgery in the capital.

The patient waiting list has grown mainly in the past four months. With hospital pressures increasing due to the explosion of Covid cases in Belo Horizonte, the city decided, in March of this year, to suspend elective surgeries — and recommended the same procedure for private health services — until indicators of care improved.

Some general intensive care beds have been moved to designated Covid-19 care units. The number of public intensive care beds in Belo Horizonte reached 758 in January. In May, after an increase in hospital admissions due to the coronavirus, the number of such beds decreased to 587.

The result is that the number of operations carried out in the first half of this year was halved compared to 2019, before the outbreak of the epidemic: From more than 20 thousand to about 10 thousand procedures.

With the improvement in the indicators of the epidemic, intensive care beds are again being allocated to non-Covid patients and elective surgeries are being resumed, little by little. Currently, BH has 783 units available.

Gradually, the routine of elective surgeries is resumed in Santa Casa, one of the largest hospitals in the capital of Minas Gerais served by SUS. The number of procedures performed increased from 85 in June to 311 in July and 394 on August 24. The number of Covid intensive care beds in the institution has fallen from 231 at the height of the pandemic to 31 now.

After this appeal, housewife Irene Nunes Rosa I was finally able to get the graft 15 days ago.

“I was worried because the cardiologist said if I felt anything I would run to the UPA. He said thank God I didn’t need it and there was time for surgery.”

According to IRIN, the procedure has been on hold since before the pandemic. Then the epidemic came, and everything stopped. Then I tried again. When I was going for the operation, in February or March, the anesthesiologist called to cancel and said that because of the purple wave, I couldn’t do it,” he said.

This month, Da Palea Hospital also began resuming elective procedures, and according to Technical Superintendent Consultant Cynthia Lloyd, A joint effort is already being planned with the municipal health department to reduce the waiting list.

“We are resuming elective surgeries now. Compared to our March peak, we are already up 30% in August.”

The hospital performs about a thousand surgeries per month, and as the pandemic scenario improves, it is expected, according to Cynthia, to absorb pent-up demand.

“As we will have this reduction in CTI Covid beds, we think we will occupy them with elective surgeries. Cases may be exacerbated by the length of waiting time patients have been in line. Therefore, it is important to make this transition of beds for this surgical back-end,” he said.

Currently, Balea has 10 ICU beds and 20 in a dispensary for Covid. The expectation is the reduction to 2 and 10, respectively.

The Health Advocate office establishes direct contact with municipal and state health departments to provide medications and expedite surgeries and other required procedures, without the need to file a lawsuit in court, which can take longer.

With a pandemic, care is preferred to take place by default. Contact numbers are (31) 98355-1340 and (31) 98477-7201.

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