DAY 32:?“The psychological impact of Covid19”

Dear Colleagues, 

In Sanitas, we are seeing a similar trend to the rest of Spain: less people admitted to hospital, a greater number of people being discharged and fewer employees in quarantine. The decrease in occupation in intensive care by Covid19 patients (42 today), has reduced the pressure on the need for more ventilators as well.  We currently have 221 Covid19 patients in our own hospitals, 39 fewer than yesterday. Another 275 Sanitas customers with the virus remain in other private hospitals within our 3rd party network, following the discharge yesterday of 64 patients. Meanwhile, 740 employees are still in quarantine while 120 have been confirmed infected. These figures continue to be high, but they are lower than what we were reporting these past few weeks.  

The numbers confirm that we seem to have entered a phase of stability. For this reason, we continue to plan separating Covid vs Non-Covid areas in our hospitals, reorganising spaces and circuits of work in order to go back to normal activity as soon as possible. For safety reasons, and in order to determine the separation of areas, we have decided to carry out PCR testing on all the newly admitted patients in our hospitals. 

As part of our preparation for the road back to normal life, we have analysed the implications Covid19 for our country’s healthcare system once the crisis is over.   I have already shared some of our thoughts on this and today I would like to share two more impacts that we anticipate in the near future. 

The first is that people have witnessed the effect of a shortage of medical resources available to them and this has generated insecurity amongst the population. From the beginning of the pandemic people were urged to avoid collapsing hospitals by not going unless they were really ill or were showing advanced stages of the virus.   Media reports of a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ventilators aggravated the situation. This reality did not match the country′s widespread idea that we had the best health care system in the world. 

It is crucial that we reinforce our national health system so that it is in a strong position to face the future. This will mean renewing assets, both public and private, to be ready to deal with any challenges that might come up in the future, such as a new pandemic, a bad outbreak of the common flu, or any other public health threat.  In these types of circumstances, only well-equipped hospitals will be able to survive.  There is no doubt we will rise to the challenge and make sure that Sanitas′ hospitals fit into this category! 

The second impact relates to mental health.  Over the course of this pandemic many people have suffered and continue to suffer enormous levels of stress due to healthcare challenges, which are exacerbated by isolation and future economic uncertainty.   Sanitas’ psychological support provision is working around the clock to support them.    We don’t speak much about this, but the psychological damage inflicted on people is huge and it will take a while to recover.    

For this reason, we believe that both the public and private healthcare sectors will need to improve their mental health services over the coming months to help the population get back on its feet.  In Sanitas we are already looking to upscale our services and in June you will see the launch of an ambitious mental health project to respond to this new reality. 

Likewise, today we have begun to discuss new ways of working that we will begin to introduce. I will tell you more about our plans as time goes on, but it is obvious that working remotely, which has proved to be so effective over this period, will become very common in the years to come (for those positions where this way of working is possible).  More details will follow soon, but what is sure is that changes will occur at every level. As I said yesterday, those who like to work in a fast-paced and stimulating environment, this is the place for you.  

We are getting closer to the end of this. Best of luck! 

#Proud #ApplauseforourHealthcareProfessionals 

#ApplauseForourITTeams #TogetherWeWillBeatCovid19