Gonzalo sanchez
03/09/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 03/09/2021 6:00 AM
Italy has a new ally in the battle against the coronavirus:
a fully medicalized train that will travel the country
as an Intensive Care Unit on rails to relieve pressure on hospitals when necessary.
The convoy is ready to roll and today it waited in the rain on platform 1 of the Roma Termini station for an Italian hospital to require its service.
"It can circulate throughout Europe, there is no other example in Europe like this railway," explained the CEO of the public entity Ferrovie dello Stato (FdS), Gianfranco Battisti at its inauguration.
It is not simply a train with stretchers
, but the entire interior has been configured to act as a hospital on rails, promoted with the collaboration of Civil Protection, the Red Cross and the Lombardy Emergency Agency (AREU).
An Italian male nurse at the Roma Termini train station.
Photo EFE
It has been designed to transfer patients between cities or also to Europe and, although in this first phase it will be used mainly -but not only- by COVID-19 patients, the idea is to make it available for future disasters.
"It is
a useful instrument
for the current and future emergency," said the head of Civil Protection, Fabrizio Curcio.
The train consists of eight wagons
and 21 Intensive Care seats divided into three of them, which have little or nothing to do with its conventional appearance, only because of its size.
On one of the sides there
are fixed beds
, with drawers underneath to take advantage of the space, and the windows have been covered with panels in which the patient's constants will be controlled, all centralized in a general computer.
With all the details
Two other wagons will serve to load the technical devices and an independent power system that allows the uninterrupted operation of the machines, while in another the medicines and
the material necessary to protect the lives of the patients will
be stored
.
Among the means available
there are 21 mechanical respirators
, one for each fully equipped bed;
ten ultrasound scanners, two arterial blood gas meters, and even isolation stretchers.
Finally, the two remaining wagons will house the operating room and the berths where the staff will rest.
Each of the wagons has a doctor and four nurses, such as Dr. Carnelli and nurse Laura Donadello, who today
prepared everything while waiting for their first trip.
Several Italian doctors and nurses at the Roma Termin train station.
Photo EFE
Dr. Carnelli explained to Efe that this train has an autonomy "of a few days", which will allow it to make "quite long" trips.
He does not speak of precise deadlines because everything will depend on the oxygen reserves, stored in cylinders on the platforms between wagons.
In case there is a shortage, the train will be able to stop at any station, refuel and start the journey again.
Covid-free trains
The public railway company joined the health battle from the first moment.
In the worst moments of the pandemic, it
transferred
doctors and volunteers between hospitals for free and guaranteed supplies by transporting 5 million tons of food.
It has also converted one of its garages in Bologna (north) into
a factory that has already produced thirteen million masks.
Now, in addition to this "medical train", it is
completing a "covid-free" line
that from the beginning of April will cover the route Rome-Milan, the two main Italian cities, and in which rapid tests will be carried out on personnel and passengers before embark.
The intention, Battisti advanced, is to implement this offer in summer for the main tourist destinations such as Venice (north).
The Italian authorities have presented a new medicalized train this Monday in Rome.
Photo EFE
As Italy continues to arm itself against the virus, it is optimistic about the arrival of a vaccine that is expected in the millions in April.
"We look to the future with optimism,
" celebrated the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, also present at the inauguration.
In addition to the "sanitary train", the bustling Termini station has opened a pavilion of almost two thousand square meters to vaccinate, becoming the first railway pole in the country to host a center for this purpose,
in its main square.
It is accessed after disinfection and within the people summoned to be vaccinated wait their turn, always accompanied by the volunteers of the Italian Red Cross Nurse Corps.
It went into operation on Saturday and 814 people have already passed through the area, although it is expected that this number will increase and, when the supply improves, up to 1,500 people will be vaccinated daily.
EFE Agency
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