Following the holiday season, Spain is seeing another surge in coronavirus cases. Hospitals are overflowing and front-line health care workers are overwhelmed. The doctors and nurses are mentally affected now since they have been working non-stop now for the past one year.
Magnitude of coronavirus infections in Spain
Spain is witnessing another new wave of Covid-19 cases. It is extremely high and beds are full in hospitals. At Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, the intensive care beds have doubled from normal and 80% of these cases are coronavirus patients. Dr. Joan Ramon Masclans, who heads the ICU revealed:
“There are young people of 20-something-years-old and older people of 80-years-old, all the age groups,”
“This is very difficult, and it is one patient after another.”
Spain and Christmas and New Year celebrations regulations
In Spain, the public authorities and government had allowed people to gather but to a maximum of 10 for Christmas and New Year festival celebrations. Though it was so, many doctors preferred to not risk it. They wanted to keep their loved ones safe and decided to not gather for the festive season this year.
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| Spain and exhausted health care workers (Source: Science mag) |
Dr. Joan was one of them and said:
“We did it to preserve our health and the health of others. And when you see that this isn’t being done (by others) it causes significant anger, added to the fatigue,”
He was at his home with his partner.
The study on mental health of health care workers
Hospital del Mar conducted a study on 9000 health care workers to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on their mental status. 28% showed symptoms of major depression. Researcher on the study, Dr. Jordi Alonso said that it is 6 times the normal incidence of depression in general public. Also, in the study more than half suffered from anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks or substance- and alcohol-abuse problems.
Similar results were seen from studies in China, the UK and other countries. The Chinese study showed that 50% had depression, 45% suffered anxiety and 34% reported insomnia (WHO study). Royal College of Physicians did study that showed that 64% of doctors felt tired and fatigued. 25% went for mental counseling. Dr. Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians stated:
“It is pretty awful at the moment in the world of medicine,"
"Hospital admissions are at the highest-ever level, staff are exhausted, and although there is light at the end of the tunnel, that light seems a long way away.”
Students were also roped in and though the first month for them was okay, they started having mental 8ssues from month 2. Dr. Aleix Carmona, a third-year anesthesiology resident in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia said:
“I started having difficulty sleeping and a feeling of anxiety before each shift,”
Many started self-medication with anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs. They preferred to not overload the work of mental health workers. Since family visits were not allowed for corona patients, they depended on nurses for support while dying. Dr. Jordi rightly said:
“If we want to be cared for adequately, we also need to take care of the health care workers, who have suffered and are still suffering,"
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