All hands on deck at the EOC - ready for the second wave

The hospital is ready to face the second wave of the pandemic.

‘Faced with the increase in hospitalisations of patients infected with the coronavirus, the COVID bed section of the Locarno Regional Hospital will be adapted to manage the situation. In order to guarantee the state of readiness requested by the canton’s health authorities, the Council of State has issued various provisions that directly concern the structures of the public hospital and which will allow the necessary resources to be channelled to the Locarno Hospital’.

The provisions listed below come into force starting today, Friday the 30th October, and will remain so at least until Monday 30th November :

 closure of the obstetrics and neonatology wards of the Locarno (immediately) and Mendrisio hospitals (from 3 November);

 closure of the stationary pediatric medicine department of the Mendrisio Hospital, whose patients will be hospitalized at the Civic Hospital in Lugano;

 closure of the Emergency Department of the hospitals of Faido (from 30 October / 16h00) and Acquarossa (from 3 November).

They remain closed :

- the stationary pediatric medicine ward of the Locarno Hospital;

- the less intensive acute bed department of the Locarno Hospital;

- the Emergency Department of the Italian Hospital in Lugano.

The need to close the services indicated is due to the necessity to have access to additional medical and nursing staff at the service of the COVID EOC hospital at La Carità di Locarno and to optimally redistribute the care staff among the various services in in order to ensure the maintenance of non-COVID activity.

In addition, to increase the receptive capacities of COVID patients, the rehabilitation mandates assigned to the EOC Rehabilitation Clinic at the Faido site may be suspended if necessary.