Hospitals can restart non-essential care if they do not use intensive care

The restart of traditional hospitalizations and day hospital activities that do not use intensive care could possibly restart, but this is counted on the assessment of the chief doctors of the hospitals and the coordinators of the local hospital emergency plans. “The availability of personnel will be a determining factor in this.”

From a small survey by VRT NWS at a number of hospitals, it appears that this staff space is not yet available at the hospitals contacted. “We still have a lot of patients in the intensive care department and we still need a lot of staff for that”, says for example at UZ Brussel, “but we evaluate every day”. We hear the same thing at several other university and general hospitals.

Geert Meyfroidt, who is a member of the committee as chairman of the Belgian Intensive Medicine Association, confirms the guidelines in the circular. “We are gradually trying to make normal activities possible again, leaving the responsibility to the hospitals themselves”, he told the Belga news agency. But, Meyfroidt emphasizes, it is a “restart with the handbrake on”.

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