BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – The relentless rise in COVID-19 infections in Spain after the holidays is once again putting a strain on hospitals and threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year .
In Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, intensive care capacity has more than doubled and is almost full, with 80% of the IC beds occupied by coronavirus patients.
“There are young people of 20-something years old and elderly people of 80 years old, all age groups,” said Dr. Joan Ramon Masclans, Head of the ICU. “This is very difficult, and it is one patient after another.”
Although the authorities allowed gatherings of up to 10 people for Christmas and New Year celebrations, Masclans chose not to join his family and spent the vacation at home with his partner.
“We did it to protect our health and that of others. And when you see this not being done (by others), it causes considerable anger, which makes the fatigue even greater, ”he said.
A study published by Hospital del Mar this month looking at the impact of the spring’s COVID-19 wave on more than 9,000 health workers across Spain found that at least 28% suffered from major depression. That’s six times higher than the rate among the general population before the pandemic, said Dr. Jordi Alonso, one of the lead researchers.
Additionally, the study found that nearly half of the participants were at high risk for anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks, or substance and alcohol abuse problems.
Spanish health workers are far from the only ones to suffer psychologically from the pandemic. In China, the number of mental disorders among doctors and nurses was even higher: 50% reported depression, 45% anxiety and 34% insomnia, according to the World Health Organization.
In the UK, a study was published last week by the Royal College of Physicians found that 64% of doctors reported feeling tired or exhausted. One in four sought mental health help.
“It’s pretty awful in the medical field right now,” Dr. Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said in a statement accompanying the study. “Hospital admissions are at the highest level ever, the staff are exhausted, and although there is light at the end of the tunnel, that light seems far away.”
Dr. Aleix Carmona, a third-year anesthetist in the northeastern region of Catalonia in Spain, didn’t have much ICU experience before the pandemic hit. But because the surgeries were canceled, Carmona was called to the ICU at Moisès Broggi Hospital outside Barcelona to fight a virus the world knew little about.
“In the beginning we had a lot of adrenaline. We were very scared, but we had a lot of energy, ”Carmona recalls. He plowed through the first weeks of the pandemic without having much time to process the unprecedented battle that was unfolding.
It wasn’t until after the second month that he began to feel the toll of seeing people slowly die firsthand while they were getting out of breath. He thought about what to tell the patients before intubating them. His first reaction had always been to reassure them, to tell them it was going to be okay. But in some cases he knew that was not true.
“I started to have trouble sleeping and a feeling of dread before any shift,” said Carmona, adding that he would return home after 12 hours feeling as if he had been beaten up.
For a while he could only sleep with the help of medicines. Some colleagues began to use antidepressants and anxiety disorders. What really helped Carmona, however, was a support group at his hospital, where his colleagues unloaded the experiences they’d bottled up inside.
But not everyone joined the group. For many, asking for help would make them unfit for the job.
“We can handle a lot in our profession,” said David Oliver, a spokesperson for the Catalan section of the SATSE nurses’ union. “We don’t want to take time off because we know we will increase the workload of our colleagues.”
The most affected group of health workers, according to the study, were nurses and nurses, who are predominantly women and often immigrants. They spent more time with dying COVID-19 patients, faced poor working conditions and salaries, and feared infecting family members.
Desirée Ruiz is the nursing supervisor in the intensive care unit at Hospital del Mar. Some of the nurses on her team have asked to take time off from work, unable to cope with the constant stress and all the deaths.
To prevent infections, patients rarely receive family visits, which increases their dependence on nurses. Communicating a patient’s last wishes or words to family members over the phone is especially challenging, Ruiz said.
“This is very difficult for … people who hold the hand of these patients, even though they know they will eventually die,” she said.
Ruiz, who organizes the nurses’ services and ensures that the IC always has sufficient staff, finds it increasingly difficult to do so.
Unlike the summer, when the number of cases declined and health workers were encouraged to take holidays, doctors and nurses have been at work continuously since the fall, when the virus cases started to lift.
The latest resurgence almost doubled the number of daily cases in November, and Spain now has the third highest COVID-19 infection rate in Europe and the fourth highest death toll, with more than 55,400 confirmed fatalities.
But unlike many European countries, including neighboring Portugal, the Spanish Minister of Health has for the time being ruled out the possibility of a new lockdown., relying instead on less drastic restrictions that are not as damaging to the economy, but take more time to reduce infections.
Alonso fears the latest wave of virus patients could be just as damaging to the mental health of medical staff as the shock of the pandemic in the early months.
“If we want to be well cared for, we must also take care of the health workers who have suffered and are still suffering,” he said.
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