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A growing number of coronavirus cases is pushing hospitals the balkans until the cusp of the collapse, Agence France-Presse reported.
After nearly a year of keeping outbreaks more or less under control, infections have started to increase. the Western balkans, one of the poorest corners of Europe, has seen its death toll double in the last month alone to nearly 10,000.
“The situation reminds me of the war and I fear it could get worse during the winter,” the doctor, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
The crisis is exposing gaps in health systems that have long suffered from funding shortages and a brain drain crisis, with an exodus of young and promising doctors and nurses leaving in search of better salaries and training in abroad.
Even before the pandemic began, the Balkans had some of the lowest physician density rates in Europe, according to data from the World Health Organization.
Hospitals are now facing further shortages as staff fall victim to respiratory disease.
In SerbiaSome 2,000 medical workers have been forced to isolate themselves just as medical wards see a huge flood of patients filling beds in the capital Belgrade. “I have never had such an experience in my professional career,” Rade Panic, president of a Serbian doctors’ union, told regional television channel N1 on Friday.
“I did not have space for patients that we consider young medically, I did not have where to transport them,” added the anesthesiologist, who works in the “red zone” of a hospital that treats the most serious cases of Covid-19.
Bosnia, North macedonia Y Montenegro They are in the top ten in Europe for the highest per capita death rates on the continent. However, governments in the region have been reluctant to revert to the drastic blockades imposed at the beginning of the pandemic, opting instead for lighter restrictions, such as early restaurant closures.
