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Adrian Marinescu, an infectious diseases doctor at the Matei Balş Institute in Bucharest, explained on Tuesday night, on Digi24, the reality behind the harsh images posted on a social network, showing how patients at this hospital are treated in the corridors, because it no longer takes place in classrooms. Some sit on chairs and benches in the hallways, improvised into beds, and receive oxygen from very large tubes placed next to them. It is a consequence of the sharp increase in COVID cases and it is a situation found in other hospitals, the doctor said.
“We see a reality these days and the situation is not only for Matei Balş. Given that in the Capital we constantly have 1,500 patients and, let’s make a calculation, let’s think that 20 percent of them need oxygen, they need a place to be hospitalized, it is clear that the number of places we have, and no matter how much we manage to do every day and this happens on Saturday, Sunday, it is not enough. And then the patients need help. Until we manage to move them to another location or make places in the hospital, they remain in the guard room. It is true that I receive the oxygen treatment, I receive the necessary treatment, but these are the images you see. After all, it is something real, ”explained Tuesday night, in Digi24, doctor Adrian Marinescu.
Some patients also wait 24 hours.
He said that there are constantly more than 30 patients in the emergency room, given that the number of beds is 19, maximum 20. “This means that the rest will remain in a makeshift bed or in a stool, being patients that, for the most part , they need oxygen, it must be remembered, it is important. In patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, oxygen treatment is vital and those who are in serious condition and need oxygen should do it immediately. When I get to the ward I get oxygen. Then we try to find a variant, unfortunately we don’t find it that quickly and patients stay in the call room for longer periods of time, they can stay for 24 hours, “said Dr. Marinescu.
“The important thing is that patients are treated, monitored, as in a normal room, only that it is an improvisation. It is clear that this is not how it should happen normally ”, admitted the doctor.
„Unfortunately, especially in the second half of the day, almost all the hospitals that are in the COVID circuit are absolutely blocked and have no more places. and then the solution is real, not necessarily ideal. All Bucharest hospitals should do a double circuit, done very correctly, and receiving SARS-CoV-2 patients is the only option, “says Adrian Marinescu.
The situation has been going on for several weeks.
The doctor said it has been a few weeks since patients are treated in the on-call room on chairs. It started to happen from the moment there were significant increases in COVID cases in Bucharest. “Since we had more than 1,000 cases in the Capital, it has become something that happens almost every day. I think at one point there were 37-38 patients in the emergency room, ”the doctor said.
“We follow the following principle: we try to help as many people as possible, people come in severe forms, they need oxygen and it is important to receive this oxygen, it is the most important thing and it has to be done quickly,” said Adrian Marinescu. When asked if there are enough oxygen sources, under these conditions, the doctor said: “We can handle it, we finally found a variant. We have tried – and fortunately we have succeeded – in recent months to constantly improve everything related to oxygen facilities, and we have done so, because we knew it was important. There are 20 beds in the guard room and the rest, more than 20, are patients who have to sit on a chair or on makeshift beds ”, he explained.
“Think that this patient, if we did not find an improvised solution, it would mean that he would be waiting in another hospital or in a place where he would not have this treatment. That is why I believe that it is correct to administer this treatment from the first moment the patient arrives in the ward, regardless of whether we have no seats on the bed. It is the best action we should take medically. In the end, the life of the patient matters ”, underlined the doctor Adrian Marinescu.
This unprecedented reality is in all COVID hospitals
“That situation, which we are going through now, definitely did not exist and I want to believe that it will not be for a long time. You should know that this reality is not only in the Matei Balş Institute. In all the hospitals that are in the COVID circuit, it is practically the same situation, because a large number of patients also need a large number of hospitalization places. Unfortunately, these are medium and severe forms, that is, patients who need to be hospitalized. (…) At the Matei Balș Institute we manage to manage and not have to choose. All patients receive treatment, it is the most important element. Eventually, we find a place, either in another hospital, or even in the places we do in the Institute: we discharge patients, we have a continuous flow, we discharge and hospitalize other patients and those who have stayed for a a certain period of time in the guards end up being hospitalized ”, explained Adrian Marinescu.
It is a rule: in the second part of the day, there is no place, and I do not mean intensive care, I mean places in general. And he’s busy, because we’re trying to free the guard. Every morning we have about 25-30 patients who stay overnight and they are the priority. We release, in the sense that we discharge, and unfortunately other patients come, because it is a great flow. And in the second part of the day we came to the same situation, said Matei Balş’s doctor.
He says that at this time COVID hospitals can no longer cope and the other large hospitals should do a double circuit. This would be the solution to stop seeing these types of images in the guard room, says Dr. Marinescu. He explained that at this time, even if a patient goes to another support hospital, if confirmed, an attempt is also made to transfer him to a COVID hospital. “This should not happen again, the hospitals of the COVID circuit can no longer receive, they have enough patients,” said the doctor.
Every day with more than 1000 new cases in Bucharest leads to a lockdown
The measures taken recently, including the overnight quarantine in Bucharest, did not yield visible results in practice, Adrian Marinescu added.
It is about that bulk that we are talking about, when it rolls, it is very difficult to stop it with slight restrictive measures. These measures can be effective when you have few cases, when you do not have an accelerated community transmission. In Bucharest, any day we have more than 1,000 new cases, it is enough to practically block these few hospitals that are in the COVID circuit. In practice, it is not possible to have so many places to be able to hospitalize all the patients who need it. If you have a large number of infections over many days, that means there are many critically ill patients in intensive care, and you have seen a steady increase, and it is clear that these patients have long periods of hospitalization, so you cannot vacate them. seats and then they start to come together at some point and it is difficult to solve, if you do not come with a significant decrease that will lead to a decrease in pressure ”, explained Adrian Marinescu.
Editor: Luana Pavaluca
