He sees the nursing ward in his hospital becoming increasingly crowded with infected people. There are currently ten corona patients in the nursing ward, the highest number in months.
His colleague, unit leader Frans Creusen, says that he is annoyed by the media. It was often written that it is quieter in the hospitals. Nothing is less true. There are normally 23 beds on their IC, of which about 85 percent is often occupied.
Raise beds
But because of corona they had to increase the number of beds to 35. All beds have been occupied for two years. “I grant our nurses an empty bed, but that often doesn’t work,” says Van der Horst.
It’s still too busy on the IC. Experts also warn of a severe flu wave. In a recently published report by the OMT It states that if the corona rules remain this way, up to 400 people may end up in intensive care nationwide. That would mean that the hospital would have to scale up to 47 beds. Maastricht UMC holds its breath.
Volle ic’s
Van der Horst: “That is not possible. At some point you get to the point where you think: is this still okay? There really is a limit to what our people can do. You can’t expect Frenkie de Jong to always play for a nine. That is what is asked of us.”
Their colleague Diederik Gommers (boss of the intensive care unit in Rotterdam) agrees with them, because 400 corona patients on Dutch ICs are really not possible, according to him. “Then we have to let go of other things, such as major oncological procedures and heart operations. And we never want that again.”
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