There is a pitiful reality hidden in the public hospitals of the City.
That reflects part of the growing poverty in Argentina in the last decade.
The enormous number of people living on the streets in the metropolitan area is evident.
And many of them find refuge in hospitals.
But there are not only people living in the halls.
Many patients who are hospitalized for some health or psychiatric issue also end up staying for months, living in emergency rooms or clinical admissions,
occupying beds and complicating the operation of the hospital
.
They are people who have already been discharged but, for some reason, be it social or due to lack of assistance, remain hospitalized.
This phenomenon occurs in all public hospitals in the City.
Sources from the Ministry of Human Development confirmed that in all public hospitals in the Federal Capital there are numerous people who are in this situation.
"Most are over 60. Some have Pami and some don't."
And they assure that these situations are usually prosecuted.
"If a person who was hospitalized was discharged but is on the streets or has nowhere to go, Justice is given room, which decides the fate of that patient: whether it is in an asylum or in another type of institution like the Moyano, or the Borda if it is a person who has psychiatric problems".
The issue is that these cases, which are in court, could be waiting for a transfer
of "six months to a year
. "
The problem is that during all that time they occupy beds in the hospitalization or emergency rooms, which are needed to receive other patients.
The guard is one of the places where people usually stay hospitalized for months, occupying beds.
Photo Martin Bonetto
"In hospital wards there are many people who stay to live there for a few months. People who should have been transferred to other institutions," says a person from the health sector.
And he adds: "Not only do they occupy the beds that are necessary to treat the new internees, but they also
run the risk of getting sick with a virus or intrahospital bacteria.
An emergency room is a space for immediate treatment. Where hospitalizations should not exceed two or three days. More than that is dangerous and also affects the operation of hospitals."
When asking what is wrong, sources consulted by
Clarín
who are closely linked to public health assure that
"the psychiatric containment network is not working
. Because many of these cases are people who enter the hospital in a precarious state of health both bodily as psychiatric".
Martín, a doctor at Hospital Fernández, says that many of these people are homeless.
And he explains that most should "relocate to an ambulatory care center day or night."
"Historically, people did not want to go to these places. And for this reason, most of these patients do not manage to be discharged when they are discharged."
At Argerich there would be about 18 patients who are in this situation.
"Eleven without coverage and about 7 from Pami," they say.
In one of the clinical units there were four people hospitalized for social and health reasons.
Two with Pami and two without coverage.
They were all months in hospital.
"This occurs in a single unit of three in the hospital," says a doctor who works there.
At Argerich there are about 18 patients who have been hospitalized for months but have been discharged.
Photo Martin Bonetto
One of these patients is an 84-year-old woman who was admitted for a ruptured aortic aneurysm, with many complications.
"She was waiting for a nursing home for months," says Argerich's medical staff.
Another is a man who is also waiting in a nursing home for Pami.
"Since the family has no way to care for him, he stays in the hospital. He has been waiting for the transfer for months."
count.
A third case is that of a young alcoholic, with a quite disabling cerebellar syndrome (alterations in gait, balance, coordination of movements), who has nowhere to go, but who also needs to go to a place where there is psychiatric follow-up. because of the issue of alcoholism. "One day the family called us and told us that they had found a place in Córdoba."
Hospital halls used as shelters
There is also the case of the people who live in the hall of the hospital.
"They are homeless people who sleep or spend the night in waiting rooms in emergency rooms.
This is common in all Buenos Aires hospitals
," they comment from the public health sector.
Unfortunately, there are no statistics or numbers that describe on a large scale what happens in all public hospitals in Buenos Aires.
"We do not have numbers. We know that there are several cases in all hospitals," they comment from Human Development.
MG
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