The Martini Hospital in Groningen will close two operating theaters for the next two weeks and will therefore have to postpone some eighty operations. Almost 10 percent of the staff is sick at home, so there is insufficient capacity for all treatments.
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The approximately eighty patients have now been called to postpone the appointment. ‘We realize that it is really unpleasant for patients that we cancel a number of operations in the short term,’ says Chairman of the Board Hans Feenstra. ‘By temporarily closing two operating theaters now, we hope to keep the impact as small as possible.’
At home due to flu or corona complaints
Due to cold complaints and the seasonal flu, about 10 percent of the staff are at home, according to the hospital. ‘We do have a test street at the UMCG so we can test quickly. But before someone can be deployed again, you are quickly two days later, ‘says a spokesperson.
‘Very little stretch, that worries me’
In addition, the hospital sees ‘the number of COVID patients increasing steadily’. This requires extra efforts from employees, but the capacity is almost fully utilized. “That means there is very little stretch left and that worries me,” says Feenstra.
‘It is important that our colleagues remain deployable, especially given the expectation that this situation will continue in the coming months. We have therefore decided to scale up healthcare to a limited extent in order to create space in the planning. ‘
Additional operations are no longer possible
After the outbreak of the corona crisis and the complete shutdown of regular care, the Martini Hospital was just catching up with operations. Last Saturday we also operated on Saturday for the first time to shorten the waiting lists. That experiment was short-lived, because of the capacity problems, there will be no additional surgery on Saturday.
The two operating rooms will remain closed for at least two weeks. The hospital then checks whether the operating rooms can be reopened.
Also read:
– Groningen hospitals: Regular care must continue in the event of a second corona wave
– Postponement of care due to corona: ‘Of course understanding, but I also want to get rid of the pain’
– Everything about corona in our corona blog
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