Toledo

Covid continued to play a leading role in healthcare throughout 2021, the year in which infectious and parasitic diseases were the main cause of hospitalization in the province of Toledo. Specifically, infections accounted for some 102,144 days of hospitalization (58,264 among men and 43,880 among women), practically 24 percent of the total. Covid was to blame, the cause of 87,592 hospitalizations, which represented 20.5 percent of income. Because throughout the past 2021, the total number of hospital stays, that is, the total number of days that discharged patients remained hospitalized in hospitals in the province of Toledo adding up all the types of health processes, was 425,631, adding 233,912 for men and 191,719 for women, which is 7.2 percent more than the 396,871 in 2020. At the regional level, there were 1,220,779 days (652,545 and 568,234) and at the national level 37.5 million of days (19.9 and 17.6).

This is clear from the latest survey published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on hospital morbidity, which shows that, on average, each Toledo admitted to a hospital spends 9.1 days, almost one more than the 8.3 of national average. After infections, diseases of the circulatory system are the second that caused the most days of hospitalization in the province 62,957 (33,723 and 29,234), while injuries and poisoning reached no less than 48,002 (29,844 and 18,158), cancer 34,952 (20,786 and 14,166), diseases of the digestive system 33,754 (18,856 and 14,898), of the respiratory system 31,119 (18,598 and 12,521) and those of the nervous system 24,528 days. Finally, childbirth and its complications caused 9,889 days of hospitalization among the women of Toledo.

During the peak year of the pandemic, 2020, there were a total of 396,871 days of hospitalization in the group of hospitals in Toledo (1,166,924 at the regional level. Of these, 24,355 were as a consequence of Covid, 65,066 at the regional level This last data can be misleading, because, according to the INE, the World Health Organization (WHO) established in February 2020 an emergency code in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) for the coding of infections by Covid-19 It was implemented in the ICD-10-CM (classification used in the coding of diagnoses in hospitalized patients), exceptionally, as of April 1, 2020 by the Centers for the control and Prevention of Diseases of the National Center for Health Statistics In Spain, given the health crisis situation that was taking place at the time, it was decided not to implement the new code until there was a decrease in healthcare pressure and information systems could accept the change. Finally, the new code U07.1 for Covid-19 infection was implemented by hospitals from July 2020.

The mean hospital stay was 9.1 days. – Photo: Rubén SerralléAs for specific diseases, beyond Covid, heart failure caused 16,544, cerebrovascular diseases 12,071, sepsis 10,056, pneumonia 9,421, hypertension 8,074, colon and rectal cancer 5,451, femur fractures 6,615, complications of pregnancy 6,549, complications in surgical care 6,083, heart attacks 5,260 and mood disorders 4,908 days of hospitalization.

ages. The number of days that people from Toledo spend in the hospital is directly proportional to their age, that is, the more years, the more sick days up to 84 years. Precisely, the decade from 75 to 84 years accounted for 85,043 days of hospital admissions. It is also the age in which there are more women admitted with a lot of difference.

Among children under one year of age, there were some 6,050 hospital admissions in 2021; 2,398 among children from 1 to 4 years old; 3,542 among those under the age of 5 to 14; 11,270 among people from 15 to 24;18,070 from 25 to 34; 26,787 from 35 to 44; 40,596 from 45 to 54; 67,461 from 55 to 64; 75,937 from 65 to 74; 85,043 from 75 to 84; 48,574 from 85 to 89; 31,586 from 90 to 94 and 8,317 among those over 95. The evolution of both sexes, however, is not identical. Except among girls and those over 85 years of age, it is men who, by far, lead all age groups in the hospital. However, its most problematic section is between 65 and 74 years, with 48,143 days of hospitalization. That of women is a decade later, between 75 and 84, with 40,979.

National data. At the national level, in 2021 there were 4,513,640 hospital discharges, 6.1 percent more than in 2020. By sex, discharges increased by 6.1 percent in the case of men and by 6.2 percent in women. If episodes of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium are excluded, the increase in the case of women was 7.8 percent. More than half of the hospital discharges corresponded to women (51.7 percent). However, if those caused by pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium are excluded, this percentage would be 47.3 percent. By age groups, the highest number of discharges corresponded to the 65 to 84 age range (33.2 percent of the total), followed by the 45 to 64 age group (25 percent).