Extreme heat “lowers immune defenses, especially in the elderly.” And in this period, in which “Covid cases are on the rise”, “we remember that healthcare facilities, such as emergency rooms, are more at risk of contagion, so they should be used when it is extremely necessary. In case of problems, it is always better to turn to the network of local medicine, which is always there”. This is the appeal, through Adnkronos Salute, by Filippo Anelli, president of the National Federation of Medical Associations (Fnomceo), in particular for the elderly, in cities or in holiday resorts.
“Family medicine – continues Anelli – ensures continuous assistance. If your doctor is not there, there is a substitute and, on holidays, there is the medical emergency. This is the assistance network to use. The elderly have the numbers, also because many are followed in increasingly widespread home assistance projects”.
Therefore, “it is better to go to the emergency room only if it is really necessary”, Anelli reiterates, underlining the risks associated with Covid infections that require caution, especially for the elderly. “It is a pathology that today does not cause any problems for young people and people who are well, but it can, as always, create an imbalance in the most fragile subjects. And considering that the heat lowers the immune defenses a little, the elderly must be particularly careful”.
Geriatrician: “More home care or emergency room increasingly in trouble”
Geriatrician Roberto Bernabei, president of Italia Longeva, emphasizes that “it is necessary to strengthen home care, but to do it really and concretely, otherwise the only answer for frail elderly people, who can decompensate due to environmental factors, such as heat and cold, will always and only be the emergency rooms, structures that are increasingly struggling. And this will happen on August 15th as in other critical periods of the year”. Bernabei underlines the importance of “getting serious about implementing home care as foreseen by the PNRR”.
“In fact, even on August 15th – Bernabei reiterates – there will be many elderly people in the emergency rooms and certainly not because they are stored or parked, but because it is clear that extreme temperatures affect their health. Normally, people die more in the winter, because the cold can kill, but so does the heat. The heat wave we are witnessing is destabilizing the fragility of the elderly, causing objective damage for which, since there is still a lack of response from the territory, people will continue to go to the emergency rooms and for good reasons: dehydration, drops in blood pressure, possible infections or organ failure. Problems that are only managed in the emergency room”.
This consideration, continues Bernabei, “pushes us once again to say that we need to strongly strengthen home care, not in a surreptitious manner, but by guaranteeing a service capable of providing the answers that are needed and making the best use of the opportunities provided by the PNRR for this”.
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