On January 10th, 2012 the fire began to grow in D Hall of the Alvarez Hospital. Patients and employees had to leave the premises and several services were offline for several months, like dentistry, kinesiology, and hemotherapy. But according to the General Audit of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish), the aftermath of the incident is still present.

The construction plan that began before the fire broke out kept on working, "despite the enormous loss of beds", which worsened the outlook for admission. In total, "83 beds were ruined, which represents 27% of the total." Furthermore, the report clarifies that the main reason for the lack of beds was the lack of nursing staff and infrastructure.

On this point it is important to note that "the auditors should conduct a recount of the beds because hospital authorities provided different data." Moreover, "trailers were rented to supplement this essential area.” 

The vaccination unit also works on a truck and although it was restored as a waiting room, "the people waiting to be treated suffer the sun, rain, and wind."

As a result of the incident, the emergency department had to be decentralized, "as outpatients and the ER are separated and there isn’t an intermediate therapy area."

To carry out the tasks of the first sector, a trailer was set up "which is accessed by steps, which makes it difficult for patients with mobility problems". Furthermore, "the waiting room is small, a harmful situation for patients with infectious diseases." In the ER they have "fewer beds, they went from eleven to four."

The fire also "destroyed all medical records," in fact; the large number of papers on each file helped the flames to grow.

Beyond the Fire

It’s worryingly what happens around the anesthetists. When the audit team assessed the Service they found that in 32.34% of the scheduled surgeries young resident anesthesiologists would sign in as responsible for the surgery (in nine cases it was 4th year students and in two cases 1st year residents). This means that those responsible were physicians in training that did not have the support and supervision of a professional anesthetist.

There is an existing stipulation that "the increasing demand for emergency care in hospitals in the City meant they had to change the regime of the Nursing Health Team." But that amendment provides that in the case involving residents "they must be supervised by a licensed medical professional" and it is not valid "for those who are studying in the fourth or fifth year."

Moreover, according to AGCBA’s report, approved in August 2013, "the Department of Human Resources does not have an updated list of the personnel working in the institution."

The waiting list for surgery "goes from 30 to 90 days." A source for this problem is that "there is a pattern in programming the selection criterion due to causes that are not registered." The report notes that "until May, they had a maximum delay of three months and thereafter many surgical specialties opted to close the incorporation of patients."

In the Pharmaceutical sector, "the movement of medication, alkaloids, narcotics, and psychotropic drugs are not recorded in a timely manner." The generalized delay was of 15 days.