The Preventive Medicine Service of the Integrated Care Management of Albacete has not only recovered throughout 2022 the activity that it lost during the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, especially in terms of vaccination for international travel is concerned, but the increase in indications for a greater number of diseases of immunosuppressive biological treatments that weaken the immune system of those who take them, has made the demand for consultations for the administration of vaccines to patients in these risk groups has doubled compared to the figures for 2019, which is already beginning to generate a significant increase in healthcare pressure in this facility of the Albacete University Hospital Complex. Thus, throughout the past year 2022, this Service attended 4,282 consultations, both for the administration of serums for tourist trips and for the immunization of the population of risk groups. In 2021, the activity on this resource was 3,577 queries, which translates as a whole into an increase in activity in 2022 of almost 20%.
The head of the Preventive Medicine and Public Health Service of the Integrated Care Management of Albacete, Jesús García Guerrero, assured that “2022 has been the year with the greatest number of consultations we have attended, exceeding the pre-pandemic data.” Of course, he recognized that this increase “has occurred at the expense of the vaccination of risk groups that increasingly requires greater dedication, because demand has grown exponentially, so much so that if we do not administer more serums it is because we do not have free dating”. So much so, that Dr. García Guerrero highlighted the need to provide the Service with one more complete consultation, in the followingnoon, in order to satisfy the current demand.
Regarding international travel, the preventivist pointed out that the international vaccination consultation is gradually recovering. although at the end of 2019 it had not yet reached the figures for 2019.
Thus, of the 4,282 consultations carried out by the Preventive Medicine Service, 3,349 were from risk groups and 933 from travelers. Likewise, 807 corresponded to first visits and 2,542 to successive ones.
The activity of the traveler consultation during 2022 doubled with respect to the number registered in 2021, going from 933 visits last year to 451 in 2021, which represents an increase of 107%, most of the consultations were first visits (632), while 301 were successive.
However, although an increase in vaccination of risk groups was already observed in 2019, with 2,225 consultations attended at the CHUA Preventive Medicine Service, the figures are much lower than the 3,349 care provided in 2022. At that time registered traveler inquiries were 1,719, 54.3% more than those recorded last year.
During 2022, Nursing professionals from the Preventive Medicine Service have administered 6,070 vaccines. Of these, 5,097 to sick people included in the risk groups, and almost a thousand, 973, to citizens for reasons of international travel.
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