Nursing Up Union, De Palma: “3500 nurses have fallen ill in the last 30 days. The data on infections from the Istituto Superiore della Sanità, which we monitor day by day, tell us of an average that has dropped, from 350 professionals (December-January) to the 115 who still get infected every 24 hours”.
The alarming data from Milanese and Campanian hospitals, between the first and second waves, show increases in infections among nurses of over 200%
“The decrease in daily infections is undoubtedly due to the restrictions and sacrifices that we have all been subjecting ourselves to for months, healthcare workers and citizens,” continues the President of the National Nurses Union. “But woe betide anyone who lets their guard down right now. A third wave that finds us unprepared, also linked to the new variants, could be catastrophic.
Just look at the figures between the first and second, which outline the bleak picture of hospitals such as Niguarda and Fatebenefratelli Sacco (Lombardy), or like Cardarelli (Campania) with increases of over 200% regarding the infections of our colleagues.
We cannot afford to reach catastrophic figures like these again, the number of healthcare workers infected every day must continue to decline. And this must happen thanks to a mass vaccination campaign that must finally start in a concrete way and that, if done properly, can lead us out of the nightmare in eight months' time".
“3500 nurses have fallen ill with Covid in the last 30 days, out of a total of 4296 healthcare workers. These are the updated data from the Istituto Superiore della Sanità, which our union monitors every day, cross-referenced with those from Inail, which indicate that over 80% of the staff who are infected are nurses, who have always, since the first day of the pandemic, been the most exposed to risk.
On the one hand, these figures partially comfort us, they make us understand how the sacrifices to which the restrictions have subjected us have certainly had the effect of reducing infections among healthcare workers who fight in the field every day.
But that's not enough. We cannot afford to lower our guard right now, with a mass vaccination campaign that is still "at a standstill", anchored to hypotheses and experiments, "lost" in the maze of operational plans that involve general practitioners with just 5 million hypothesized administrations, or tied to pseudo-armies of volunteers recruited by the civil protection.
Once again, we have been repeating this for months, we are missing a concrete project that involves the forces we already have in-house, the best possible, that is, the employed nurses, the linchpin on which to build the foundations of this battle to be won at all costs, because the delicate challenges of health emergencies like this are faced first of all with quality healthcare with targeted and timely interventions, built on adequately paid professionals".
Thus Antonio De Palma, National President of Nursing Up, denounces the need, in light of what happened between the first and second waves, not to deplete the energies expended right now, but to continue in the effort to counter the virus with a synergic plan adequate to the scale of an emergency that does not seem to want to grant us any respite.
"At Fatebenefratelli-Sacco in Milan, Niguarda also in Milan and Cardarelli in Naples: in the second wave we reached increases ranging from 216% to 130%. Dizzying numbers, which we cannot ignore, which tell the story of the drama experienced by Italian nurses from September to today. All this must make us understand that we must be ready to face new difficult battles. And the risks of the variants, which loom like a sword of Damocles over our heads, can only be removed with a collective vaccination plan that finally sees the light in a concrete way, supported by screening and safety measures that in hospitals constantly protect those who risk their lives every day "in the arms" of the enemy", concludes De Palma.
Article published on March 6, 2021 - 09pm
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