The College of Nursing of Ceuta demands that a state of alarm be declared due to an "unprecedented health collapse"

This same Wednesday, the College of Nursing of Ceuta has requested that a state of alarm be declared due to the "unprecedented health collapse" that the autonomous city is currently experiencing after the massive entry of migrants from Morocco last July. This is how it has requested it, after analyzing the latest health balance of the city which shows figures of "extreme care activity."

According to comments, the College is facing 200 daily assists with peaks of more than 1,600 interventions, assuming a care load of between 14 and 16 patients per nurse, in addition to work shifts that exceed the planned workday by up to four hours. "Nurses find ourselves exhausted both physically and psychologically, facing deep emotional wear and tear by being the main support for people who are in conditions that do not correspond to those of a developed country. We have suffered a violation of territorial integrity and given the seriousness of the events, we propose that a state of alarm be declared throughout the territory. We thus denounce that there are not enough means to address the current crisis," denounces the president of the College of Nursing of Ceuta, Rosa Fuentes.

On the other hand, the General Council of Nursing (CGE), shows total support for its colleagues in Ceuta, in addition to also demanding urgent resources and intervention from the Government. "We ask that a single command be established in Ceuta to lead these operations and that the means and provisions that this territorial emergency requires be allocated. It is not the time to deflect responsibilities or to mask figures," assures the president of the CGE, Florentino Pérez Raya.

In the same way, nurses are also concerned about the health status of the population served, which they assure is already leaving outbreaks of diseases related to overcrowding and lack of hygiene. For now, they highlight 200 cases of acute gastroenteritis, 20 cases of scabies, in addition to an outbreak of 30 cases detected among military personnel, 21 cases of impetigo, and 4 of tuberculosis. And all this without counting the cases produced in beach settlements such as El Trampolín or the Tarajal warehouses, "where monitoring is much more complex." The nurses do not stop here and continue with their complaints, this time about the lack of availability of resources and the impact this is having on the professionals themselves. "This lack of foresight and the fact of permanently working with adjusted staff critically weakens patient safety, since extreme fatigue and prolonged stress multiply human errors that can lead to drug dosage failures or chaotic shift changes where vital patient information is lost," concludes the president.

Finally, the nurses also wish for their city to return to normality, as they claim to feel abandoned by some administrations. "Ceutians want to be able to enjoy our beach, go out without fear, or go shopping without rationing queues or lack of basic necessities. On the other hand, the situation of migrants is not what corresponds to a developed country. They are overcrowded and without minimal hygiene services," concludes the president of the College of Nursing of Ceuta.