Thirteen signs that Hungarian healthcare is starting to break through its roof

Individual reports

Behind the unprecedented epidemiological figures is the state health system, there are the institutions, the individual departments of Covid, where health workers have been heroically fighting for their lives for 1 year (but we can also mention GPs , which have now become the center of order vaccination), and we must not forget the rest of the professionals who treat non-coronavirus patients in the current situation). News, statements and almost cries for help arrive sporadically from these institutions. These have been compiled to show how acute the situation is at the micro level:

1. On March 5, the competent ministry announced that Miklós Kásler, Minister of Human Resources, had issued instructions to all health institutions that provide active hospital care and to the authorities in order to guarantee the continuous care of a growing number of patients with coronavirus, stop the epidemic and relieve hospitals For the head of the National Ambulance Service about the immediate suspension of night surgical benefits. This suggested that hospitals are saturated with coronavirus cases.
2. News broke on March 7 that the government is also helping care for hospital patients by redirecting residents. Which has already suggested that the workforce must expand due to increased demand. Two days before that, the decree was issued, giving residents the opportunity to furnish.
3. That same weekend, a decree was issued that gave the General Director of the National Hospital the opportunity to involve private doctors and the property and personal property of private providers in patient care.
4. Péter Pál Varga, founder of the Buda Health Center, which currently functions as an epidemiological hospital, told Portfolio on March 7 that if the infection progresses at that rate, the affected ward of the hospital will fill in 1-2 weeks. We also learned that they can still care for Covid patients in more than 60 beds in the institution.
5. On Sunday, March 7, on the RTL Klub evening news, László Szijjártó, president of the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Medical Chamber, stated that for the fourth day they could not attend urgent cases in obstetrics, gynecology and pediatric departments of the Mosonmagyaróvár hospital To the Covid department. He already indicated then: the problem is national, the intensive classes are full. The next day, he drew attention to the fact that Győr would like to recruit volunteers in Moson Sopron county, candidates could be deployed to Covid departments after a short training and would receive basic care tasks.
6. On March 8, the statement by Zoltán Balogh, president of the Hungarian Chamber of Health Professionals (MESZK), was published, according to which it is already very difficult to staff Covidos departments with enough staff on a day-to-day basis. . Speaking to RTL Klub on the night of March 8, Zoltán said that Hungarian healthcare had never experienced the events of the last few days, as those masses had never had to receive Covid care at the same time. So now we need to think hard about how current resources are being used. Frontline workers work 5 * 12 hours a week, trying to provide preparation with a 1 to 1 day break, which is difficult to tolerate physically and mentally in the long term, especially when patients die on a daily basis.
7. On the morning of March 8, an interview with toxicologist Gábor Zacher, who is an emergency specialist at Hatvan Hospital, appeared. In this interview, the expert said: Hospital capacity in Hungary is running out, sometimes entire families are hospitalized with coronavirus infection. He had already indicated at the time that the covid ward established at Hatvan Hospital now had a “full house.” He said there is no shortage of equipment in hospitals, but there is still a shortage of professionals. One day after the interview, the news was confirmed: The Albert Schweitzer Hospital’s certified COVID-19 infection and suspected infection capabilities have been filled for the past week. Krisztina Zelnik, the institution’s press officer, emphasized that patients aged 40 to 50 are more likely to be treated for infections.
8. On the morning of March 9, János Szlávik, chief infectious disease specialist at South Pest Central Hospital, spoke in a radio interview about the fact that virtually all beds reserved for coronavirus patients at South Pest Central Hospital are full and there are many people in the intensive care unit. “I heard that throughout the country, unfortunately, more and more patients are hospitalized, more and more patients are admitted to the intensive care unit and, unfortunately, they are being ventilated,” he explained, referring to the fact that the situation is serious at the level. national.
9. On March 9, the municipality of Tata announced that it would close for two weeks from March 10, as all the doctors were sent to the municipal seat. According to the justification, due to the increase in the number of patients due to the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic, it became necessary to redirect specialists from the Tata site to the Santa Bárbara Hospital in Tatabánya.
10. Also on March 9, the University of Debrecen announced that due to the increasing number of patients with coronavirus infection, another Epidemiological Care Center building had been opened on the Nagyerdei Campus of the Clinical Center. Outpatients are asked to continue visiting the Gyula Kenézy Campus Emergency Department with symptoms suggesting an infection.
11. On March 10, 24.hu learned that the Balassagyarmat hospital could be filled with coronavirus patients in two weeks. The portal knows that the city hospital has the capacity to serve approximately 240 patients with coronavirus and 40 ventilators.
12. On the morning of March 10, the Szent György University Hospital in Fejér County, Székesfehérvár, announced that the number of COVID-infected patients had multiplied, so everyone has to wait longer. Therefore, they were asked to report to the courtroom only when warranted; in other cases, visit your GP’s office.
13. In a briefing of operational staff on March 10, National Medical Director Cecília Müller said that “more and more of them need hospital treatment, doctors are experiencing more and more serious cases, many times an entire family is hospitalized and many are breathing in almost minutes or hours. ” “Meanwhile, health institutions are doing everything possible to reorganize so that no one is left unattended,” he explained.

What can help the system

We are here now. These signs suggest that the public health system is beginning to reach its peaks due to the unprecedented burden of the epidemic.

The tension in the system is offset by the fact that in the third wave, health workers are much less infected than in previous waves, since a significant proportion of them have been vaccinated. That’s what it refers to Béla Merkely, rector of Semmelweis University Also answer the portfolio:

The fact that healthcare workers were the first in Hungary to receive the vaccine significantly increases the carrying capacity of Hungarian healthcare and thus of Semmelweis University.

“So despite the fact that the British mutation in COVID-19 is very aggressive, spreading rapidly and causing far more illness than before, healthcare providers are, I estimated, between 20% and 25% more burdened than before. The university is one of the largest COVID-19 care facility in Hungary, we have currently freed up a thousand beds for COVID patients, at the same time that the rate of illness among our colleagues has dropped dramatically as a result of vaccination, currently 4 per thousand, “said the rector, said in his response.

Where do we go now?

Until now, the general idea has been that the government can choose between two options: bring in extremely sharp closures for a relatively short period of time, or apply softer closures given the economy, which in turn will be forced to stay in place for during long time. more extensive.

If healthcare capabilities are already this roaring (in patients with around 850 coronavirus ventilators), it would be more helpful to introduce very sharp austerity to quickly ease extreme pressure on hospitals. The longer the health system is at the high end of its long-term performance, the more the quality of care will deteriorate, reserves will be depleted, and health workers will become increasingly depleted.

And if we take this into account, the instantaneous burden on health would clearly justify the first strategy to choose the two options presented above, namely a sharp and fast closing. In this situation, the question arises as to whether the restrictive measures introduced last week meet this condition.

We know that the government has tightened an existing restrictive measure, but outside of schools and kindergartens, the government has little limited space in terms of contact numbers (we have shown in our article that more services and stores can stay open than what previously expected and has remained that way ever since). rather, its scope is expanding), which is why we have written several times that we cannot in any way speak of the complete shutdown of the country.

In the next two weeks it will be clear whether these new restrictive measures will be enough to reverse the epidemic, or

the deceleration of the epidemic will be so slow that medical care will be forced to operate at or above maximum capacity for weeks. And that doesn’t bode well.

Cover image source: MTI / Zoltán Balogh