Madrid, the community that dared to reconcile health with the economy

Cristina Carrero: “Adrenaline surpasses you and said:” I go there “”

The experience of the pandemic in hospitals is archicontada; It was terrible in all its aspects. But there was also a lot of implication of primary care: from there the volunteers who worked at the IFEMA hospital came out. “It was the first time in 30 years that we left primary school to go to the hospital,” recalls Ignacio Sevilla, a family doctor at the Los Alpes Health Center (San Blas). The first day, “I arrived at 7.30 in the morning with a phoneme and a pulseioximeter – to measure oxygen saturation -“. Thus began his experience in the campaign hospital, which defines as “beautiful and intense, but hard.”

The fear of an unknown virus and that killing, did not know how, was inevitable. «But adrenaline surpasses you and you say. ‘I go there,’ ”says Cristina Carrero, a prevention and promotion nurse who also went to Ifema as soon as they proposed it. To face «a fisting virus; You were with a patient, everything was fine, and suddenly, he died. Juan Antonio Sarrión, Technical Director of Primary Care Management, will never forget that situation: «We were with the Epis and five pairs of gloves; You could not be more than 4 hours inside. Little by little we took the measure to the virus ».

The admitted spent it worse, «without knowing, without mobiles, without batteries … sometimes separated from their relatives, who were in other centers. There were cases in which they learned of their death being there ». Sarrión recalls above all the examples of solidarity: citizens who “arrived with tablets so that patients could communicate with their families”; A taxi driver who appeared “with the entire plasticized car from behind, offering to take the toilets to their homes,” Cristina intervenes. The lesson that everyone extracted: together you work better.

Those who stayed in the health centers did not live it with less intensity: «In the first case that came to us with Covid, the patient had to be locked up to bring it to him; We did not know the seriousness of the pathology, ”explains Lourdes Botanes, head of nursing at the Los Alpes Health Center. Then it was already such a large number that there was no way to isolate them.

After the confinement decree, the ambulatory did not close: «Neither on weekends; We were inside attending to the phone to assess the most serious cases, which we visited at home, ”says the director of the center, Mariló Martín. “It is that the rest of the diseases did not stop: the chronicles, those of the sintron, who did not want to approach …”, says María del Mar Jodar, responsible for the User Service Unit.

His role was essential: «We were the first line, the containment wall for the hospital; We could not collapse, ”says Mariló Martín.

Normality took back. In fact, says Lourdes Botanes, “we have had to go a bit in search of the chronic patient, because they began to abandon out of fear.” If another pandemic arrives, he believes that “this generation would be prepared, because we have lived it.” But if they spend a hundred years, “then nothing: that of 1914 was lived by our grandparents and we did not know how to answer now.”

Dr. Sevilla says goodbye with a recommendation: «The virus is still there and is killing more than the flu; You have to continue protecting us, especially the vulnerable ones, do not stop vaccinating.

José Antonio Aparicio: «Every morning the Excel opened, the extract of the bank and the BOE»

He arrived from the office of President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, where she had been called with other representatives of the regional hospitality to search for formulas to get the food to the beneficiaries of dining scholarships in the schools, newly closed. He confesses that he was still impacted by the first dead figures, who had met in that office. “They called us as mayor and told us that we had to close the terraces of Plaza Mayor.” His, the first: he was personally dismissed to customers. «The last was a French old lady who didn’t understand anything, insisted that she was on vacation; We told him to go to the hotel and locked himself there ».

From that day, “every morning I started opening the Excel, the extract of the bank and the BOE”, because the novelties were the order of the day. Negotiate the ERTES, delay payments to suppliers, suspend orders underway … “Everything for red numbers to arrive the better better.” They attended hundreds of calls from desperate hoteliers from their association. And personally, “I took the bike and approached me to the Plaza Mayor to see if the cameras continued to work, if everything was fine.” And to take home the fresh products before they broke down. “We ate salad 20 days in a row,” he recalls.

The first days they could open, “as of May 25: the couples of older lords down and they told you: ‘I don’t care what I put on, I just want me to give me the air’.” He believes that progressive opening measures “saved the sector.” Five years later, he believes that some things have changed: “We all want to reconcile more, it becomes later and closes before night.” Interior spaces have recovered, and terraces are essential. “But what have not yet returned are the mass bars.”

Pedro Casablanc: “Pena the public with masks”

“The child was closed by the school, so we decided to go from Madrid to our house in Alicante,” recalls Pedro Casablanc. Luckily caught his door coinciding with that date: «He had, thanks to Javier Bardem, a serial project produced by Steven Spielberg; For once Spielberg calls me, pandemic arrives. Anyway, Alicante did not come out: «My representative told me that I had to go to Mexico to finish filming; I took a plane and left, but when they got there, all the borders closed and the series was suspended ». He ended up returning.

When Madrid reopened the theaters, the image that comes to mind is «that of the masks in the theater, and two chairs between each spectator. It was very sorry, because you didn’t know if they were laughing or exciting.

Ginés García Millán: “I was impacted to travel on almost empty airplanes”

The confinement order caught him very far, «in Mexico rolling; In fact, I could not return at that time ». With the feeling of “being far away, not knowing when I was going back and that I was alone.” When he finally returned, “everything was a bit dystopian: I was with my daughter in the supermarket, making the purchase, to see us.” What impacted him most was “that return trip, with practically empty airplanes, and the airports the same.” Psychologically, he believes that “we have not overcome it; There are things that have remained for us, and others for worse ».

Luis Gil: “It was a dry brake for growth”

“He caught me in a moment of enough impact, moving home,” recalls Luis Gil, general director of the Federation of Cinemas in Spain. In his sector, confinement fell like a bomb: «It was a dry brake for the growth that had been produced; In 2019, we had the best figure of the decade ». Today, the sector follows 20 percent below prepaandemics data.

When the situation began to defrost, “Madrid had a clear commitment to recover the activity: we were allowed to open with restrictions.” Five years later, what has noticed above all is a change of habits: “The arrival and implementation of the platforms has accelerated, the pandemic accelerated them extremely.”

Jesús Cimarro: “A second function on Saturdays got into the curfew”

The day before the state of emergency decree, they had already decided to close the theaters, says Cimarro. “From there, it was an unimportant work with the Ministries of Culture, Finance, Health, with the Regional Government, with the City Council …” First, closing 15 days. Then, another 15. “When we verified that it was going for long, many protocols had to be done for the opening of theaters, and to get aid and ERTES.” The priority was the safety of spectators, actors and technicians: “The distance, the hydroalcoholic gel, the disinfectant carpets, the tests …” came.

Everything was new, and problematic: «A second function on Saturdays, for example, got into the curfew. They admitted us that the entrance would serve as a safe -conduct ». Madrid, he emphasizes, “it was one of the few cities in the world that maintained open theaters”, something for which they asked “in videoconferences from Argentina, Chile, United States …”.

Cimarro agrees to detect a change in habits: “Especially the schedules, which then advanced and have already been maintained.” And another novelty: “An audience that was not usual in these shows and has now been incorporated, those of 20 to 40 years.”