The Hospital Clínico de Valencia has started to refer women in labor to the nearest hospitals to their place of residence in view of the provision of free operating theatres to accommodate Covid-19 patients. This was confirmed yesterday by sources from the Ministry of Health, who admitted that this detour is foreseen in the contingency plans. Health also said that the multiple or risk factored births are still being attended at the Clinic, although this newspaper has obtained images that prove that the delivery rooms have become an ICU for Covid-19 patients.
The testimonies coming out of the Covid plants in the Valencian hospitals are eloquent. A nurse working at the Clinic admits that she no longer knows “how many floors” are for Covid-19 patients in the centre, one of the most important in the city, and admits that are “much worse” than in the first wave. The saturation is such, he admits, that they have patients with mechanical ventilation who should be in the ICU but who are on the floor “because they no longer fit” in the specialized unit.