RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – There are reports of Brazilian health workers forced to intubate patients without the help of sedatives, after weeks of warnings that hospitals and state governments risk running out of critical drugs.
A doctor at the Albert Schweitzer Municipal Hospital in Rio de Janeiro told the Associated Press that for days health workers diluted the sedatives to make their stock longer. Once exhausted, nurses and doctors had to start using neuromuscular blockers and tie patients to their beds, the doctor said.
“Relax your muscles and perform the procedure easily, but we have no sedation,” said the doctor, who agreed to discuss the sensitive situation only if it is not cited by name. “Some people try to talk, they resist. They are aware. ”
Lack of the necessary medicines is the latest pandemic problem that has arisen in Brazil, which is facing a brutal outbreak of COVID-19 that has flooded national intensive care units. The daily number of deaths averages about 3,000, accounting for a quarter of deaths globally and making Brazil the epicenter of the pandemic.
“Intubation kits” include anesthetics, sedatives and other medicines used to put seriously ill patients on ventilators. The press office of the Rio health secretariat said in an e-mail that the occasional absence at the Albert Schweitzer headquarters is due to difficulties in obtaining supplies on the world market and that “replacements are being made so that there is no damage to the care provided.” . He did not comment on the need to tie patients to beds.
The newspaper O Globo reported similar attempts in several other hospitals in the Rio metropolitan region on Thursday, with people desperately resorting to other facilities looking for sedatives for their loved ones.
It is unclear whether the issue seen in Rio remains an isolated case, but others are sounding the alarm about the impending absence.
Sao Paulo State Secretary of Health Jean Carlo Gorinchteyn told a news conference on Wednesday that the situation is serious in the hospitals of Brazil’s most populous state. On Thursday, more than 640 hospitals were on the verge of collapse, with a possible absence in a few days, officials said.
“We need the support of the federal government,” Gorinchteyn said. “This is not a necessity for Sao Paulo; it is a necessity for the whole country. ”
His health officials have sent nine requests for intubation drugs to the Ministry of Health in the past 40 days, according to a statement on Wednesday. His latest delivery was enough to cover just 6 percent of the state’s monthly public health network, PA officials said.
Federal Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, who took office last month, said on Wednesday that a shipment of sedatives is expected to arrive in Brazil “in the next ten days.” It is the result of a contract signed with the Pan American Health Organization.
He said that two separate efforts are underway to obtain medicines on the international market “to put an end to this daily struggle”.
For many weeks, the ministry has also been facing logistical constraints on delivering oxygen to hospitals across the country. Queiroga said it remains “a daily concern.”
A more contagious variant of coronavirus, known as P.1, has spread to Brazil this year. It can also be more aggressive than the original strain, and health workers have reported patients needing much more oxygen than last year.
The private sector has stepped up to help address some of the supply shortfalls. A group of seven large companies donated 3.4 million doses of intubation drugs – enough to manage 500 beds for six weeks – to the Ministry of Health.
A first batch of 2.3 million was scheduled to arrive from China late Thursday at Sao Paulo International Airport and will be distributed to critically ill states, the ministry said in an email response to AP questions about supply bottlenecks .
Last month, the Ministry of Health requisitioned intubation drugs from laboratories, according to some means of distributing the most needy hospitals. This has reduced stocks of other facilities, said Edson Rogatti, director of an association of more than 2,000 hospitals nationwide.
“If we finish, the health sector will be in chaos,” Rogatti told Globo News TV.
Lack is not limited to the public sector. The Brazilian private hospital association released a poll on Thursday in which nine of the 71 institutions reported holding supplies for five days or less. About half said they arrived for a week.
Private facilities are looking to import medicines from India, but still need regulatory approval, the association told the PA.
Itaiopolis in the southern state of Santa Catarina reported a shortage of both sedatives and oxygen this week. The neighboring state of Rio Grande do Sul also reported the consumption of consumed products.
“The situation is desperate,” Rio Grande do Sul Health Secretary Arita Bergmann said on Thursday. “We urgently need the Ministry of Health to fill hospital stocks, otherwise intubated patients may wake up without medication and it would be awful.”