MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

City of Buenos Aires bans all non-urgent surgical procedures to free up hospitals for covid-19 patients

Public hospitals have been doing this for a while, so only private clinics are to be affected by Larreta's decree.

Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta Thursday ordered all health care facilities regardless of whether public or private to cancel every non-urgent surgical procedure or treatment scheduled for the coming days to make room for the increasing number of covid-19 patients who need hospitalization, it was announced.

According to sources from the city's Health Ministry, Larreta's decision only passes into law what has been common practice in the past few weeks in public hospitals, so only private sanatoriums are expected to be affected by it.

Decree 137 specifies that ”the effectors of the private health subsystem and those of social security must reschedule and suspend, for a period of thirty (30) calendar days, the scheduled care and medical interventions related to pathologies that with criteria are not of an urgent nature or that cannot be discontinued or postponed, to have the greatest amount of available assistance resources that allow for the care of patients with covid-19, both external and admitted.“

It goes on: ”In the current context, and attentive to the evaluation of the epidemiological condition carried out by the Ministry of Health, the need for an articulated and coordinated action of the entire health system as a whole is noticed, focusing the efforts of the health system for the care of patients with COVID-19, without neglecting the most urgent needs“.

This decision is based ”on the high number of cases and the increase in the level of occupancy of beds, both general and critical care.”