FIRST PATIENTS ADMITTED TO BERGAMO FIELD HOSPITAL

The first COVID-19 patients assigned to the EMERGENCY Intensive Care Unit at the Field Hospital in Bergamo, operated by the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital, have arrived. EMERGENCY is managing a 12-bed ICU ward with 34 staff members. The team, which is expected to increase in size, is made up of 10 doctors, 14 nurses, 4 physiotherapists, 4 socio-medical operators, 1 laboratory technician, and 1 radiologist.  Several of these staff members worked in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic, an experience which contributed to the design phase of the new hospital in Bergamo. EMERGENCY helped to construct the facility alongside approximately 300 volunteers, including artisans from the city (carpenters, electricians, plasterers, plumbers and painters), 150 volunteers from Sanità Alpina, and 40 from the logistics department of the Ana Civil Protection.

 “We are very proud to have contributed to the design and clinical organisation of this hospital, putting our experience gained in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic into practice”, said Rossella Miccio, president of EMERGENCY. “We worked to compartmentalise each area, created well-defined dressing and undressing zones, and planned the rules regarding movement of people in advance to minimise the risk of contagion. We called our medical and healthcare personnel that have worked for us abroad: from Uganda to Sudan, from Afghanistan to Iraq. Starting today, we will be at the frontline, committed to treat anyone in need”.

 To know more about EMERGENCY’s response to the Covid-19 epidemic click HERE