Doctors anxiously await a long weekend: the number of patients in hospitals in the Vilnius region has doubled

According to A. Bilotienė Motiejūnienė, the weekend will be special not only because it will be a holiday, but also because of its length.

“4 days is quite a challenge for us as a Vilnius region. <...> Probably in the first and second stage of the wave [šis savaitgalis] it will be the most difficult, “said A. Bilotienė Motiejūnienė.

According to her, the current bed occupancy is 84 percent. Santara Clinics is looking for ways to guarantee a very calm and safe weekend both in the provision of services and in the reception of the patient.

“We wait and talk with the entire region, with all the health institutions, that there will be the discharge of patients, who will probably save us this weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

If a week ago we hospitalized between 40 and 50 patients in the region, then we have been hospitalizing 80 patients a day for several days. This is practically double that of last week, ”said a representative from Santara clinics.

According to her, if there were currently about 200 beds in the region, it would not be enough for 4 days without discharge.

“We are prepared for a small plan to open extra beds, but, both here and in other institutions, we always hear new numbers in the morning, since there are sick or self-isolating staff.

So we have beds, staff shortages. Volunteers help us. They are trained. Starting on the 24th, that is, starting tomorrow, 100 volunteers come to work for us. We are extremely grateful. It is help, the hands are what we lack today, ”said A. Bilotienė Motiejūnienė.

Practice shows that in the first days of a long and festive weekend, there are generally fewer patients going to medical facilities, but there is a great challenge ahead on Saturday and Sunday.

“It is likely that then we are in the marginal number of beds and staff. We will probably count the beds alone, or in the faster case, dozens.

However, we are positive. We will try to solve the problems in time so that patients do not have to wait outside, wait in the ambulance and react according to the situation.

We are still not sure about staffing, because we have dozens of employees in self-isolation every day, some employees have changing illnesses, we have local access points, and unfortunately we can no longer move from one unit to another, because the cluster activities also they must be insured. We also have fireplaces here.

We do our best to solve problems. We are certainly not intimidated, but we want to say that this weekend is special for us. We will react to the situation, “promised A. Bilotienė Motiejūnienė.

According to a representative of the Santara clinics, the situation is similar in all regions, due to the lack of personnel due to the self-isolation of the doctors.

A. Bilotienė Motiejūnienė noted that despite the new COVID-19 incidence records, the number of patients with this infection in the hospital has not changed significantly, but more and more serious patients are being brought in.

“As of yesterday, to ensure the number of beds in intensive care units, where the most complex patients are located, we have a recently created Intensive Pulmonology or Intensive Care Unit, where pulmonologists, under the coordination of resuscitators , supervise intensive care patients who cannot be treated in the wards.

They are subject to a high flow treatment and system. We also have the option of not occupying the much needed resuscitation beds at this time.

Today – [to skyriaus veikimo] second day. We have a practically complete department. Furthermore, there is the possibility of expanding it, as there are still quite a few such patients who can be treated with intensive care, ”said A. Bilotienė Motiejūnienė.