A nurse of the Hospital Carrasco suffered serious injuries when attacked by a psychiatric patient. The victim had to undergo surgery for a shoulder injury. The Association of Physicians of the Argentine Republic (Amra) He denounced the serious situation that arises from the Mental Health Law that allows the hospitalization of people with mental disorders in general hospital rooms that are not prepared to care for them.
Amra’s general secretary, Sandra Maioranapointed out this Thursday that the incident that occurred in Carrasco “This is what has been happening for a long time in all public and private effectors.although in the latter they transcend less”, and explained the reasons for the situation: “From the Mental Health law, patients are hospitalized in general rooms. The vast majority of these places are not prepared to care for this type of patient. and to prevent the patients themselves from injuring themselves or the personnel who care for them and the people who are cared for in the same rooms and who are not from mental health.”
Speaking to the show “First in the morning” from LT8he pointed: “A psychiatric patient had a crisis. The nurse who was working, together with the private security personnel, tried to protect that man, to limit him, to apply the indicated medication to stop the crisis, and there was an accident at work. The nurse suffered an injury for which she is now waiting to be operated on her shoulder after the conflict she suffered with the patient”.
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Likewise, he assured that what happened in the Carrasco “happens in other effectors”, and added: “There is a lot of overload in mental health hospitals, that Agudo Ávlia de Rosario and Emilio López de Santa Fe. On the other hand, the other hospitals that receive mental health patients are not prepared and are not suitable for that. Room 3 of the Carrasco, where the incident took place, has only one room prepared for a patient of this type and has had an average occupancy of beds with psychiatric patients of 40 in the month.
“We ask that the necessary measures be taken in those places. They must be rooms where there are no sharp elements, glass in the windows and that there are fastening elements. In addition, there must be a sufficient amount of trained staff for these patients. We had problems at the Vilela with pediatric and adolescent mental health patients. The number of patients, mainly those with addiction problems, has increased a lot, especially during the pandemic,” Maiorana explained.
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Finally, he stated that the health system “is not prepared to receive the number of patients it is receiving.” And he concluded: “Both at the municipal, provincial and private levels, this must be adapted, and it is urgent. Today it was the turn of a colleague, who is having a very bad time and has to undergo shoulder surgery. It is not a minor issue and It could have happened to a doctor, a maid, the patients who were next to him. We demand adequate security measures where these types of patients are hospitalized”.