​Bogotá D.C., August 25, 2020. Today hospitals give an encouraging message regarding covid-19, in the sense that there are positive indicators that allow the National Government to go from quarantine to selective isolation. This was highlighted by Carlos Fernando Sefair, Méderi hospital director in his speech in the Prevention and Action program of the Presidency of the Republic.

"We have seen that the occupancy of intensive care units (ICUs) has decreased. For example, first of all, our hospitals have an occupancy of approximately 82% in ICUs, which goes hand in hand with what is being reported through the Health Office in Bogotá," Sefair highlighted.

For Sefair, the decrease in ICU occupancy is occurring due to the expansion of the installed capacity; this is how Colombia went from having approximately 5,300 beds before the pandemic, to today being close to 10,000 ICU beds. "That has allowed us, at the health system, to be able to respond to that demand that we have had as a result of the pandemic," he said.

In the same vein, he added that another issue to highlight is that Colombian hospitals have learned to manage critical patients and today intensivists are taking patients who are truly in need of it to ICUs. "We have had treatments that have revolutionized the management of patients with covid-19 a bit, for example high oxygen flows to avoid intubation of patients and be able to treat them even at home," he said.

Sefair considered that currently there is some leeway, but without neglecting the responsibility that all must assume, mainly citizens performing self-care, which is the key to returning to normality and being able to have spaces again.

Not let our guard down

One of Sefair's calls for health care human talent is not to lower their guard, especially those who are not in the first line of care for covid-19. "We have identified that those who have been most infected are those who are in areas other than where we are treating patients with the virus. And why does that happen? It is precisely because they consider that the risk is not high," he warned.

Safair presented that example to indicate that as Colombians we can be a little more at ease, but we cannot lower our guard. "Today hospitals are safe places, we understand that there is a fear in the public to attend the IPSs for obvious reasons, but we consider that what has been done in biosafety protocols and in all the measures that we are taking means that today we can have safe hospitals," he said.

Many hospitals have also turned to digitization, offering teleconsultations, a mechanism that is still difficult to accept since many users prefer face-to-face. "But it is an issue in our culture that must begin to change and with the experience of the pandemic there is that possibility," concluded Safair.