Hospitals in the Czech Republic fall over due to corona: ‘We must already refuse patients’

The students are badly needed, says a spokesperson for the university hospital in Brno. “They learn quickly and I have to admit, this is a valuable experience for them.” The help of students, general practitioners and any other Czech with a medical background creates a militant atmosphere. “Everyone does their best to provide as much care as possible.”

That cannot prevent the staff from becoming exhausted. IC physicians and nurses in Brno work 12-hour shifts, both day and night shifts. No one works less than five days a week. In the ICU there are three to four nurses for every six patients, in the nursing ward there are two to three nurses for every thirty patients.

State of emergency

At least twelve hospitals are in a state of emergency exclaimed. In such a case, a hospital can no longer meet the normal standards because the maximum capacity has been reached.

Internist Martin Straka, who heads the covid department in Sokolov, makes a daily choice as to who can or cannot be helped. “It’s pragmatic, without feeling. We already turned off our emotions in January. Otherwise you can’t do triage.”

He is very critical of Prime Minister Babis, who he says has responded much too late. “Instead of listening to experts, he listens to the will of the people. Even though the people have already run away from him in great numbers.” The Czech health care system is not the fault, says Straka, because there was sufficient capacity. In fact: “If the hospitals had become overloaded earlier, the politicians would have responded sooner.”

The psychological and physical limits of the staff have been reached. “We ask anyone who ignores the corona rules to realize who they are hurting with it,” was the cry from a hospital in Príbram, which shared a photo of an exhausted nurse on Facebook.

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