(Newswire.net — June 28, 2021) — According to British Heart Foundation analysis of NHS England data published in April, one in four British patients are waiting over four months for their heart surgery and other heart procedures. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly a third fewer heart operations and procedures were performed in February 2021 compared to last year in England. Such an impact of the pandemic has led citizens to question what the future of healthcare in the Covid era is.
However, for Professor Giuseppe Speziale, an internationally renowned cardiac surgeon, some things could have been done differently. “From an institutional point of view, I would have expected that, during the pandemic, given that regional mobility was banned, there would be no talk of spending caps. I would have expected the State to promote once and for all a health system based on strengthening the territory”, he says.
Author of more than six thousand interventions, including more than a thousand of isolated minimally invasive mitral surgery, Prof. Speziale argues that this is not a political question, but rather a question of the so-called “strong powers.” For him, “health represents a myriad of economic interests that are coveted by many.”
Taking this into consideration, the surgeon believes that while it was necessary that ordinary hospitalizations were blocked during the Covid-19 pandemic, such a decision has also prompted an increase in mortality due to unpredictable events such as heart attacks, which are incidents that cannot be programmed. “Many people have died without ever reaching the hospital or even being late. Many people, out of fear, have abandoned necessary treatment and prevention. To be clear: a disaster has occurred,” he argues.
Italy was one of the first countries to be affected by the Covid-19 crisis in Europe, but, at the same time, it counts with facilities such as GVM Care & Research, an Italian hospital group present in ten regions, as well as in other four nations. Strongly equipped and bonded with the territory, all hospitals take a bit from Italy to other countries while offering an international experience, without barriers or stereotypes.
As vice president of GVM Care & Research, Prof. Giuseppe Speziale mentions that twenty-five years ago, he was forced to leave Italy to learn more about heart surgery, but today Italian heart surgery is at a world level of absolute excellence. “Today Italy also teaches in other countries. Many centers have been developed, both public and private, all of them with an excellent way of working,” stresses the surgeon.
Since Prof. Giuseppe Speziale first started to study heart surgery, there have been a lot of changes in the field both in terms of technology and technique. “Some of the main innovations have to do with the tools to reach the diagnosis: today we have the possibility of recognizing various pathologies much earlier than in the past”, explains the surgeon.
More importantly were the achievements in terms of less invasive procedures, such as in the case of mitral valve surgery. “It is not just a technical question: even on a psychological level, everything changes for the patient, a person who is about to undergo a minimally invasive intervention starts from a completely different position. They face the moment with a much more positive approach,” says Prof. Speziale.
In this same sense, Prof. Speziale also argues that it is important that hospitals be welcoming, that they inspire trust both for the environment and for the staff, who must also have an important level of “humanization” based on dialogue, respect, and understanding. “Patients are admitted to the hospital with the concern of a pathology, therefore, it must be an environment that reassures from the first impact the important role that it plays”, stresses the surgeon.