The IC departments of the eight Dutch university hospitals say that the number of corona infections is getting out of hand.
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In a joint statement, they state that the ICs will soon no longer be able to meet demand.
Urgent
“We do not consider the intended number of ICU beds of 1350 feasible. With the expected 700 covid patients in the ICU, there will be too few beds left for, for example, heart operations, cancer operations or accidents,” their manifesto states. According to intensivist Iwan van der Horst of the Maastricht MUMC+, this is the first time that the academic hospitals are working together. “That shows how urgent it is,” he says.
scale down
According to Van der Horst, the hospital in Maastricht does not have to scale down care yet, but that is inevitable if the number of new corona infections continues to rise. The number of available IC beds is now lower than last year. This is due to the outflow of healthcare personnel. The absenteeism rate of ICU nurses in particular is high at the moment. In contrast to the first two corona waves, the intensive care units want to prevent other treatments in the ICU from being jeopardized.
Measures
Van der Horst and his co-signatories argue for stricter measures to prevent worse. “Those will have to be acid measures, similar to the WHO guidelines.” The Maastricht intensivist believes that the government was too quick to abolish the one and a half meters and the mouth cap. He also hopes that the cabinet will reintroduce working from home on Tuesday.
