All children’s intensive care units are currently completely full, says the professional association of nurses and health professionals of the Netherlands. This is partly due to the flu epidemic and the increase in the number of children with the RS virus, the association says.
In addition to a flu epidemic, there is also an RS virus epidemic in the Netherlands, RIVM reports. The number of RS virus reports from laboratories has increased significantly in recent weeks.
Seven teaching hospitals will meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation, confirms Károly Illy of the Dutch Pediatric Association after reporting from RTL news. It is not yet clear whether any action will be taken.
However, Illy tells NU.nl that the situation is still “under control” at the moment. The increase in the number of RS virus infections this year is one month earlier than before the corona pandemic.
“Normally we don’t see the increase until January,” Illy says. But it’s “not uncommon” for hospitals to see more children with the virus in the winter.
Wat is het RS-virus?
Het is een verkoudheidsvirus dat bij de meeste kinderen vooral hoesten en verkoudheidsklachten veroorzaakt. Enkele jonge kinderen worden er heel ziek van en moeten worden opgenomen in het ziekenhuis. Heel soms kunnen baby’s aan het virus overlijden.
“Even hospitals in neighboring villages have no place”
However, Renze Jongstra, a nurse at Leiden University Medical Center, calls the situation “sad.” She says the problems are exacerbated because there are no beds available in our neighboring countries to accommodate patients.
“The dire situation has arisen because there have been too few nurses for years,” says Jongstra. To make room for all the children, extra beds are added, so that a nurse has to help more patients than desired.
Intensive care nurses who normally work with adults or in the neonatal ward are also transferred to the pediatric ward. “This is not desirable for the patient and also not good for the workload nurses face,” says Jongstra.
CIs for children are always fuller in the winter than in other seasons, she says, but there seem to be more children with respiratory infections this year. “The ICs are constantly calling each other to ask about free beds. As soon as a bed is free, it is filled again.”
