Por Redaccion Adrián Barbón appreciates the civic and solidarity attitude of the citizens during the great blackout: «In an absolutely unprecedented situation, we have given an exemplary response»
The President of the Principality, Adrián Barbón, announced this morning the reinforcement of the rapid response system to emergencies to ensure energy autonomy in essential public services and facilitate communications. Following yesterday’s major blackout, which left the entire country without power shortly after 12:30 pm, the head of the regional government has committed to learning from an «absolutely unprecedented» situation and has praised the civic and solidarity attitude of the citizens, who have shown «an exemplary response.»
Thus, the Government of Asturias will continue to perfect the Territorial Civil Protection Plan of the Principality (Platerpa), which is still active in situation 2, allowing the addition of intervention resources from other administrations, such as the Emergency Military Unit (UME), which has been working since yesterday afternoon to fill the fuel tanks that power the hospital generators.
It is also planned to strengthen energy autonomy in critical points such as hospitals, nursing homes, and service buildings such as the 112 headquarters in La Morgal. «They already have autonomy now, but yesterday’s lesson teaches us that we still need to reinforce it to make it last longer,» explained the President.
Another system that the Government of the Principality will review is the communications system, in order to transmit accurate information to the population in situations like yesterday with more traditional technologies, such as radio and telephone, which proved to be particularly effective in the event of power outages and data network failures.
These are some of the main messages that the President has conveyed in a briefing where he was accompanied by the Minister of Mobility, Environment, and Emergency Management, Alejandro Calvo, and the Health Minister, Concepción Saavedra, to assess the situation after the major blackout.
Adrián Barbón noted that the Asturian response to the emergency has been characterized by speed: «Minister Alejandro Calvo established the crisis committee past 1:30 pm and by 1:53 pm, we had already declared level 2 of the Platerpa. While other communities had not even activated phase 1, we had already activated level 2 here.»
He emphasized that the priority of the emergency response was to ensure essential public services, a goal that was achieved, as hospitals provided assistance with their own networks and energy generators, as did nursing homes. The educational system also operated normally, and students returned to classes this morning.
The Emergency Service of the Principality (Sepa) handled 2,657 calls and 738 incidents from 12:30 pm yesterday until nine o’clock this morning. By seven o’clock this morning, 99% of the supply had been restored in Asturias.
Health Ministry’s Report
The Health Minister highlighted that, minutes after the blackout occurred, the Asturias Health Service contacted all the healthcare area managers to assess the situation and activate contingency plans.
The priority was to ensure the continuity of healthcare being provided at the time and prepare the healthcare system for a situation whose duration and consequences were uncertain, anticipating possible eventualities. This involved ensuring the operation of ICUs, emergency departments, operating rooms, radiology tests, laboratories, and all basic services, as well as primary care.
The area managers ensured the continuity of ICUs, completed all ongoing activities in operating rooms, technique rooms, and tests, all activities that could not be delayed, and the rest of the scheduled activities that could be carried out safely. As the Minister explained, this was done «without significant incidents because professionals remained at their posts ensuring healthcare and because the generators immediately started working, ensuring energy supply to maintain activity with energy-saving plans in common areas and air conditioning systems.»
Care continued to be provided in all hospitals and health centers, although in some cases, due to the data network failure, patients were attended to without being able to access electronic records, and when a paper prescription was needed, there was maximum collaboration from community pharmacy offices.
«To maintain this situation in case the power supply was not restored, diesel supply was ensured so that hospital centers could continue operating with autonomous electrical supply. We also contacted the rest of the public and private contracted network and social health centers to ensure diesel supply directly with their usual suppliers or through the Emergency Military Unit,» said Concepción García.
During that time, plans were also made on how to provide care in primary care emergencies and hospitals during the night. Morning activities were carried out quite normally, as did afternoon activities. At the HUCA, for example, all scheduled surgeries were maintained, and only magnetic resonances, radiotherapy, and CT scans were suspended in the afternoon.
The assessment that can be made, as explained by Saavedra, is «one of fairly normalcy after the healthcare system was once again put to an unprecedented stress test yesterday.» This situation «has forced us to consider some issues for other similar events that may occur in the future, such as the need to have an electrical generator that can be transferred to centers where there may be a specific failure of the installed autonomous equipment.» Also, the need to have a more autonomous communication system to maintain communication at all times between all healthcare areas and command posts.
«I believe it is necessary to thank all healthcare professionals, as well as social health personnel, for the effort they have made in such a complex situation, and of course, the entire population for their exemplary behavior in the use of healthcare resources and for the calmness with which they have faced any difficulties that may have affected them,» said the Minister.
The overall activity suspended throughout Asturias that will be recovered in the coming weeks includes 50 surgeries, 15 consultations, 107 radiotherapy sessions, and 406 diagnostic tests. In all areas, 1,242 emergencies were attended to. In the Emergency Medical Service, 936 incidents were received, advanced life support was activated 21 times, 5 interhospital transfers were carried out, no heart attack codes were activated, and one stroke code was activated.