The operating room and delivery room of the Hospital de Formentera are back in operation after the latest microbiological cultures performed in the area have confirmed that the area is safe to reactivate its activity. This was reported this Tuesday by the Health Area of Ibiza and Formentera, which detailed that the reopening comes after weeks of work, sanitization and strict controls to ensure the protection of patients and professionals.
The operating room has resumed emergency activity as of Tuesday, while scheduled activity will resume this Wednesday with seven Dermatology surgeries. In addition, the 13 surgeries that had to be postponed during the preventive closure have already been rescheduled. During this period, five operations were referred to Can Misses Hospital and two low-risk deliveries had to be performed off the island. The Hospital de Formentera did attend one low-risk delivery despite the restrictions.
The incident began on October 13, after the DANA ‘Alice’, when dampness was detected in an anteroom of the surgical area. Since then, the hospital applied a comprehensive protocol supervised by the Infection Control Unit and the Microbiology Laboratory, which included several phases of hygiene, comprehensive cleaning and hydrogen peroxide fogging. Despite initial efforts, a preliminary report detected the presence of an environmental fungus, forcing a repeat of the actions and new sampling.
During the first week, the hospital maintained urgent activity, but suspended scheduled activity. On October 17, only interventions for vital emergencies were authorized. After new analyses with invalid results, action was taken again and definitive samples were taken on November 14, whose values, now validated, confirm the viability of reopening the operating room and delivery room as normal.
The Health Area stressed that all the measures taken were of a preventive nature, highlighting that both the operating room and the delivery room never lost their emergency operations. In addition, during the whole process, the protocol for possible transfers was coordinated with the Hospital Can Misses and SAMU061, including air transport if necessary.
With the reopening, the Hospital de Formentera recovers the usual surgical activity after a complex month marked by prudence and the absolute priority of ensuring patient safety.
