80% of ‘emergencies’ at Axarquia Hospital trivial

MORE than 78 per cent of people attended at the Accident and Emergency department of the Axarquia Regional Hospital had minor ailments. Of 78,813 ‘emergencies’ at the hospital, 61,774 were for trivial ailments, and only 7.7 per cent required hospital admission, according to the head of the Axarquia Health Department, Torcuato Romero.

In 2010, for the first time, the number of emergency cases seen at the hospital has decreased slightly, by 1.3 per cent. The average number of cases attended per day is 215.21.

However, the number of emergency at health care centres throughout the area has risen by four per cent to 191,537, mainly due to the home emergencies, which amounted to 17,029. Only three per cent of cases needed to be transferred to hospital.

The number of people admitted to hospital fell by five per cent to 7,740, and the average stay is 6.11 days.

The number of births fell compared to 2009, to 1,202. Only 267 of this were by Caesarean section.

In 2010, 8,615 surgical operations were carried out, which is 17.14 per cent more than in the previous year, and minor surgery rose by 40 per cent.

The number of external consultations rose by 4.22 per cent to 149,356, consultations at health centres throughout the area amounted to 778,902, of which 22,638 were come visits. There were 115,376 paediatric consultations and 397,663 nursing consultations.

More than 10,750 mammograms were carried out on women aged between 50 and 69 at the hospital and at Nerja Health Centre as well as the mobile unit.

There are 149,057 people in the Axarquia health district, and 1,381 health care professionals.