Heat alert, hospitals under pressure

The fierce heat is putting (even more) pressure on hospitals. The number of visits to the Island's emergency rooms is increasing - for a few weeks now the population, with tourists, has grown considerably and, in addition to the direct impact of high temperatures on people, more accidents are happening - furthermore, like every summer, there are many "social hospitalizations", that is, lonely people, usually elderly, having no points of reference in the area, seek refuge in health facilities.

"These are situations that repeat themselves every summer," underlines Fabrizio Polo, director of the Brotzu Emergency Room, "we in particular are targeted by "high codes", we manage a lot of traumas, then there are patients who come on their own. In total in this period we reach an average of 160 people per day".

For Wolfgang Orecchioni, director of the Emergency Department of the Policlinico di Monserrato, "the heat does not create new problems, if anything it amplifies and exacerbates the ones that already exist. We have between 70 and 100 daily admissions, sometimes we reach the peak, 110, and this is mainly due to the desertification of the territory"

Meanwhile, the hell continues. Today and tomorrow in Sardinia temperatures will remain very high, reaching 39 in the internal areas, and never falling below 36.