Zakynthos Informer Zakynthos Informer
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It may sound strange and unbelievable that by the end of March, the Intensive Care Unit will open and be in operation at the hospital in Zakynthos; the only sure thing is that it is not far from reality.
It is also certain that the opening of the ICU, and even hurriedly, is under the pressure of the European Union.
This means that less than a month in a countdown where the General Hospital Administration has in order to comply with and respond to the requests mentioned in the letter of the Ministry of Finance which was received a few days ago and which calls for the speeding up of the necessary actions to close the open pending cases there are.
At the same time, there is still a risk of requesting the reimbursement of the European funds given as the ICU which should have been functioning regularly, complete staff and services for years. In short, if they do not work immediately on March 31st, 2019, the beds of the ICU of Zakynthos then will expire and the hospital’s extension a few years ago will be regarded as an incomplete project and will have to prove that it is in full operation. The worst of all is that the certification will be done by bodies of the European Union and not by the Ministry of Health.
The deadlines
According to what has become known to our newspaper, the current period should be the smooth closure of the European programs 2007-2013 and the timely completion of the unfinished projects. This is, moreover, a commitment to the European Union for projects that are incomplete in order to complete their physical and economic subject and be operational by 15th of March 2019 and then to inform the European Union of the unreliable deadline of 31th March 2019.
Recommendations and pending issues
The aforementioned dates also concern the hospital of Zakynthos, for which recommendations have been made repeatedly for the completion of pending cases such as the orderly operation of Units and Departments that were found to fail due to lack of
staff and in particular the ICU, and more.
Money to be returned
It is worth mentioning that if the functionality of units and parts that are incomplete, and in particular of the ICU, the project is declared inoperative as a whole and the country will be called upon to return to the European Union the total amount of Union support has received. Up to now, the registered costs of the project exceed € 15,000,000 and exceed € 20,000,000 in total from PPS funding.
It is worth mentioning that from the point of view of the Government, all possible support has been provided to date, so immediate mobilization should be made within the aforementioned date in order to speed up the procedures required for the completion of pending cases until 31 March 2019.
The actions of the Administration
After all, the Administration of the Hospital, even at the very last moment, proceeded with a series of procedures. The board of directors met on the subject of “Testing and Certification of ICU Machines” and, according to the comments posted in the RAINBOW, decided and approved at the suggestion and authorized the Governor to make all necessary decisions until the end of the proceedings.
Subsequently, it approved a credit commitment of € 9,188 or € 2,232 for verification-operation control – electrical safety of ICU machines, € 5,282 for ventilator maintenance and € 1,674 for ICU certification according to ISO 7396-1 (Medical Gas Installations).
What about staffing?
However, a questionnaire remains with which staff will work because another becomes operational and staffed and operating. Unless it functions as an ICU -an Increased Care Unit – where again it requires staff with specialized training and manning with that of the ICU and even with previous similar experience. It is worth mentioning that a new hospital operating since May 2012 has a fully equipped Intensive Care Unit with 5 beds but so far there is no medical and nursing staff that has been put to use! And, worse, a sophisticated Unit, fully equipped, remains at the mercy of humidity and disuse. In addition the situation became even more difficult during the summer months, when hundreds of thousands of tourists were on the island.
It is recalled that in the framework of a competition held in 2017 for the staffing of the Units through The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ΚΕ.ΕΛ.Π.ΝΟ.), we had a successful physician and in particular our compatriot physician – intensive caregiver Gerasimos Agaliotis, who is now the NHS curator second in charge. Also, two nurses (TE) and three nursing assistants (IC) nevertheless did not work the ICU again.
Many incidents
Nobody disagrees that there are a number of incidents on the island that are added to the long list of those who due to non-existence of the ICU are required to be transferred either by airplane or by ship. Those who live near the airport area have found it: C-130 flights for emergency air-routines have become daily routines. Every hour of the day and night, urgency or what may be deemed necessary for an ICU bed is transferred from the island. Typical is the case of our three fellow citizens who passed away because of their waiting to find a bed in one of the ICUs in the country. The fact that the Intensive Care Unit of Zakynthos Hospital remains closed, Pediatrics without doctors, the EKAB with shortcomings and the problems of understaffing – under spending unresolved, remains the reaction of the local community.
As long as our island is left without this possibility, residents and hospital staff who exaggerate to offer themselves live with “Will it happen to me”, as the possibility of a particularly urgent incident becomes widespread over the heads of all.
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source:- https://www.imerazante.gr
