[ad_1]
In the Kiev region, even patients with obvious problems are denied hospitalization. Open source photos
Ukraine has another anti-coronavirus registry. During the last day, 2,836 people were infected.
But there is another terrifying figure: coronavirus suspicions. As stated on the NSDC website, there are 195,757 of them today, that is, more than have been infected during the entire epidemic.
It is clear that not all suspected cases will be confirmed. But some of them are definitely coronaviruses. In addition, since tests are delayed (they have to wait 7 to 14 days, which “Strana” has already described in detail), at the time of confirmation of the diagnosis, the patient is often already in critical condition.
But the situation is exacerbated by the fact that they now refuse to take such “unconfirmed” patients to hospitals.
At the disposal of the “Strana” he obtained a recording of a telephone conversation between a Kiev family doctor and an ambulance dispatcher. It is clear from him that the doctor requests to urgently hospitalize a patient with bilateral pneumonia (80% of the lungs are affected), but so far without a test, he has not yet had time to arrive.
To which the dispatcher responds: today in the Kiev region there is not a single place in hospitals for “unconfirmed covid”. He also explains that the places in the coronavirus departments are running out (there are patients with already confirmed diagnoses).
The lack of beds is now observed not only in the Kiev region. Vinnitsa Governor Borzov recently announced that there are not enough 200 beds in his regional center. And yesterday, he urgently began to deploy an additional bed fund – several hospitals and even a maternity hospital were involved.
It is true that Health Minister Maxim Stepanov, speaking with deputies in the Rada, said that the situation with hospitals is under control: less than half of the bed capacity is full, and in some regions, about 62- 65%.
“Strana” found out if Ukraine is threatened by a shortage of hospital beds and why people are already being denied hospitalization.
“Suspects” are not accepted
A terrifying image emerges from the conversation between Sofievskaya Borschagovka’s family doctor and the ambulance dispatcher, whose record is available to “Strana”.
The doctor called hospitals all day to find a place for a patient who already has bilateral pneumonia, 80% of his lungs are affected and he is suffocating. But he couldn’t find a place, and called the ambulance with a request for urgent hospitalization from the patient.
But it turned out that there are no more places in the entire Kiev region. “At least take me home, I don’t know what to do,” complains the dispatcher.
Places for coronavirus patients are running out. There are places in hospitals for people with positive tests on their hands, but not enough.
But for patients who are already with coronavirus, but still without tests, it is far from clear what to do.
Testing in government laboratories takes a long time: 5-7-14 days. As is clear from the form of a closed conference call between Chief Medical Officer Viktor Lyashko with regional officials and doctors, many labs slow down free tests for covid (they are done on people who already have symptoms), but they run paid tests without waiting. in line (for example, for a planned hospital stay).
As a result, people who already have all the signs of coronavirus and have severe pneumonia cannot reach the hospital; there are no more places in the departments for the “suspects” and they do not have a test that allows hospitalization in the coronavirus department. Vicious circle.
The ambulance dispatcher, in conversation with the family doctor, assures that they do not even have a single express test that, in theory, would allow a “suspected” patient to be hospitalized in the coronavirus department. And he advises the doctor to “treat it at home”, even though at that time the oxygen saturation level of the lungs was 93%, which is very low.
“The norm is not less than 98%. 93% is already respiratory failure. In addition, there can be a rapid negative dynamic: if 93% in the morning, then 87-88% at night,” explained the boss. of the National Medical Chamber Sergey Kravchenko …
But, as the ambulance dispatcher says, such indicators are not a reason for urgent hospitalization. “Yesterday, 94% of the patient was not taken to Irpen with saturation,” he tells the family doctor.
“That is, should the patient die at home?” Specifies the doctor. To which the dispatcher responds: “I don’t know, I really don’t know.”
“Save” beds
According to Sergei Kravchenko, in Kiev, the situation with the coronavirus sites is more or less successful: the Alexandrovskaya and the fourth city hospital are receiving patients.
But there are also alarming symptoms. Recently, hospital No. 8 (in the Minsk massif), which is included in the list of medical institutions of the second wave, was closed to receive patients with coronavirus.
In the regions, the situation is different everywhere. In some, there are already problems with places in hospitals. Then the other day the shortage of two hundred beds in Vinnitsa was announced. There they began to urgently search for additional beds, used 25 beds in the maternity hospital, 100 beds in the city hospital №3. Hryvnia 4.7 million was allocated from the budget. But even so, the occupancy rate of the coronavirus beds in Vinnitsa will reach 75%.
In other words, a new bed shortage is possible soon. We need at least 400 additional beds, Vinnytsia authorities said.
As “Strana” became known, many hospitals “save” beds, that is, they refuse as much as possible to hospitalization.
As a source at the Kiev City Hospital No. 4 told us, they only take seriously ill patients with coronavirus. At the same time, VIPs (in particular MPs) are hospitalized even with mild forms of the disease.
“While there were enough places, they were all hospitalized, but now there are no beds,” says the ambulance dispatcher.
“Less than half the beds full.” Response of the Ministry of Health
However, the Ministry of Health has yet to see a particular problem.
As Health Minister Maxim Stepanov said in a briefing on September 5, less than half of the coronavirus beds are full in Ukraine (35,000 in total, of which 9,000 are still in reserve).
In some regions, the figure is higher, but not yet critical. In the Ivano-Frankivsk region, according to him, the total number of occupied beds for patients with suspected COVID-19 is 61%, in the Odessa region – 65%, in the Chernivtsi region – 69%. But with an approach in which patients are rejected as much as possible, it is possible to maintain such numbers. The question is what to do for people who are truly left without medical care.
On Friday, Stepanov reported on the coronavirus situation to parliament. And he assured the deputies that everything is under control: the hospitals have a supply of protective equipment for three months, the money from the coronavirus fund will last until the end of the year and the Ministry is working on different scenarios of the epidemic.
At the same time, the media, referring to their sources in the Cabinet, wrote that if the figures for new cases of coronavirus reach 3,000 people a day (and this figure is already close), hospitals will be filled in October.
“He will lie down in gyms”
According to Sergei Kravchenko, if we calculate the scenario of the Ukrainian coronavirus based on the general forecasts of the WHO (70% of the population will fall ill in 2 years and 20% will need hospitalization), the monthly need for beds will be 250 thousand.
In total, there are more than 270 thousand beds in Ukraine, but this is all in a row, and not just the coronavirus ones. That is, if 250 thousand beds are assigned for covid, the rest of the patients will be left without hospital care.
There are only 36 thousand coronavirus beds, which will allow hospitalization of around 10% of those who will need it.
In resuscitation beds (with the ability to connect to oxygen), the situation is even worse: they are enough for only 5% of patients who need hospitalization. “I mean, the shortage of beds is our immediate prospect,” says Kravchenko.
Apparently, already this winter, coronavirus patients will be housed in exhibition pavilions, indoor stadiums and gymnasiums, as was the case in Europe.
“It is not clear why the algorithms for the deployment of additional hospital bases were not worked out in the summer. I had the experience of deploying two battalion tents (Kravchenko, former head of the State Emergency Service, Ed.), we collected 300 beds across the country for two weeks). In an emergency, we won’t even find a bed, let alone supplies, “says Kravchenko.
As former Ukraine medical director Svyatoslav Protas points out, bed statistics are only one side of the coin.
“What difference is there in the number of beds we have if there are not enough doctors? The beds in the morgue can also be counted, nothing works without a doctor. We have a catastrophic shortage of epidemiologists only. Thousands of the population, then in Ukraine there is one of those doctors for every 150 thousand. And it will be very difficult to solve this problem in the foreseeable future, “he says.
