The pressure on Belgian hospitals remains high due to the high number of corona patients. However, as their numbers have been declining for some time, the government is now allowing hospitals to restart “traditional hospitalizations and day-hospital activities, at least” when they are not using intensive care. “
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This is evident from a circular that Paul Pardon, the medical director of the FPS Public Health, posted on Friday evening. In mid-October, the pressure on hospitals was so great that many people saw their planned surgery postponed to a later date.
Pardom emphasizes in his circular that hospitals must first consider whether they have sufficient staff available for the resumption of these ‘normal’ hospitalizations.
According to the circular, hospitals are also allowed to scale down for the first time, whereby in practice they may slightly reduce the number of corona beds in the intensive care department, being from phase 2B to 2A. “But in the event of a recurrence of the virus, this capacity must remain reactivated within 48 hours for another 2 weeks.”
Finally, pardon ask that hospitals that had to send their corona patients to another hospital due to lack of space or staff, take these patients again as soon as they no longer need intensive care.
“In exceptional cases this does not work, which can cause problems for follow-up care,” said Pardon. Think of a patient who still has to go to a rehabilitation center, which is best done near the place where the person concerned lives.
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