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The crisis of medical personnel is deepening and patients feel its effects. An elderly man hospitalized at Târgoviște County Hospital had his children call 112 because he felt suffocated and found that no one from the medical staff was available to help him. The hospital manager says the patient was being monitored, but at the time of the incident at the hospital there were only a handful of people caring for 60 COVID patients.
Patient: I shoved a spoon into the oxygen tube, no one can be heard in the hallway. I can’t move because I don’t have oxygen anymore.
It is the cry of despair from a 65-year-old man suffering from COVID and hospitalized in the Târgoviște County Emergency Hospital, who asked his children for help because he was drowning.
Mădălin Radu, the patient’s son: Last night at 9 o’clock the phone rang, I was watching, my father. And that: call 112 quickly because I no longer have an oxygen tube, nobody comes. 10 minutes I think he ran out of oxygen. And when I called 112, we don’t care. I can call your ambulance. Ma’am, what ambulance to call, is it at the hospital? How to call the ambulance at the hospital?
The situation is not unknown to the health unit management, which says it says that no hospitalized patient at the Târgoviște County Emergency Hospital was left without oxygen for a second.
Claudiu Dumitrescu, director of the Târgoviște Emergency Hospital: this is a patient who was hospitalized on the 18th in a rather serious condition, with a saturation of approximately 68-70%, requiring oxygen. The patient often refuses to wear the mask that provides the additional oxygen flow, necessary in the treatment of the patient’s illness. Last night I checked exactly when that issue was reported. The patient had an oxygen tube at the head of the bed, with normal pressure, I think it could have been a panic attack of the patient.
The manager also states that this is the effect of the lack of specialized medical personnel to provide the necessary care to these patients. Basically a handful of people end up caring for up to 60 inpatients on 3 different floors.
Claudiu Dumitrescu: In vain we do temporary hires right now, because we have beginning assistants, beginning nurses, which means slightly poor activity, at least in the early stages of their activity. We serve 3 floors of COVID positive patients in this building and staff cannot be present at all times and as quickly as possible for each patient. The pulmonology department we are talking about, we currently have 5 nurses on the day shift, 2 nurses and 1 orderly.
The crisis of medical personnel is a problem that is found at the level of all hospitals, not only in the units where patients diagnosed with the new coronavirus are treated. Approximately 52,000 physicians work in hospitals across the country. The understaffing has been known for many years, but so far not many solutions have been found. The authorities are considering hiring all the doctors who take the residency exam this year. Until then, however, the doctors are exhausted, but cannot take a break when they get tired.
Editing: Monica Bonea
