The Amsterdam UMC and OLVG have to postpone planned operations for children because their nursing wards and ICs are full of young children with the RS virus. Most children get the RS virus, but do not end up in hospital as a result. Some children between 0 and 2 years can develop pneumonia or serious breathing problems and are then admitted to the intensive care unit. At the moment, 40 percent of the pediatric IC of the Emma Children’s Hospital in Amsterdam is occupied by patients with the RS virus. This is reported by the Parool.
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Last winter there were remarkably few children with RSV as a result of the corona measures. Now that children are fully back to school and much has been relaxed recently, there is a delayed RS virus epidemic. That was already the case a few weeks ago in Rotterdam and the surrounding area and now also in the Amsterdam region.
transfer
The OLVG in Amsterdam has to transfer about eight young patients with the RS virus to another hospital every day. And that can be very drastic because it often involves young children, whose families are then temporarily separated. “It is very difficult to organize remotely. And besides: it is still exciting when your child is admitted. Then you want to be close to home,” says Malika Chegary, head of the children’s department at the OLVG.
At the Amsterdam UMC, medical students support nursing in the children’s wards. The number of operations in children is 70 percent of normal. Emergency surgeries always go ahead, but not always planned. The hospital gives a date for surgery, but can only say whether it will go ahead the night before.
By: National Care Guide
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