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Madrid converts hotels into hospitals to treat coronavirus patients

A four-star Madrid hotel has been transformed into a medical care facility to treat people with mild cases of coronavirus in a bid to ease pressure on hospitals grappling with the pandemic.

Published: 19 March 2020 15:49 CET
Madrid converts hotels into hospitals to treat coronavirus patients
Medical staff await the transfer of patients at the Hotel Colon. Photos: AFP

Regional authorities in Madrid, the region of Spain hardest-hit by the outbreak, plan to repurpose more hotels over the coming days to treat coronavirus patients.

This will help “alleviate the pressure” on hospitals which are starting to become overcrowded and free up beds for more seriously ill patients, the regional government of Madrid said in a statement.

Ambulances transported patients to the 359-room Gran Hotel Colon, which is about a 10-minute walk from the Gregorio Marañon hospital, one of the Spanish capital's biggest.

The hotel is made up of two buildings which are linked by a large garden and art gallery.

Medical staff wearing white protective suits, face masks and gloves then began escorting patients inside the building under the glare of TV cameras which were kept at a distance.   

Another four-star Madrid hotel, the Marriott Auditorium, is scheduled to start receiving patients on Friday.

Hoteliers have offered regional authorities the use of a total of 40 hotels in the Madrid region with 9,000 beds to treat coronavirus patients, according to Madrid's main hotel association.   

The hotels will be used to house patients “whose symptoms require medical attention without the need to be hospitalised, both at the start of the disease as well as during the final phase,” the regional government statement
said.   

Spain on Thursday announced that deaths from the novel coronavirus had jumped by nearly 30 percent over the past 24 hours to 767, while the total number of confirmed cases of the disease jumped by around 25 percent to 17,147.

Madrid accounts for 40 percent of the total infections in Spain and two-thirds of the deaths.

Spain has the fourth-highest number of confirmed cases of the virus in the word after China, Italy and Iran and many of its hotels are being emptied by the pandemic.

Health services are at breaking point in the capital as intensive care units across all Madrid’s hospitals reach saturation point and vital equipment is scarce.

On Wednesday morning there were 491 patients with coronavirus in ICU’s at Madrid hospitals fighting for their lives, a figure that had tripled in five days.  But by Thursday that number had soared again by one hundred new critical patients to 590.

Medics complain that they don’t have the equipment they need; not only life-saving ventilators required to treat critical patients fighting pneumonia but basic protective equipment that will keep the staff safe.

On Thursday it was announced that a 52 year-old nurse in the Basque Country had died after contracting covid-19, becoming the first health worker to perish from the virus in Spain.

 

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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