From the perspective of hospitals, extra measures are attractive, says Ernst Kuipers of the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS). This could lead to a faster decline in hospital admissions, which is beneficial for regular care. “But the cabinet must also weigh other aspects, I only speak from the healthcare point of view.”
There are currently 2,545 corona patients in the hospital, 52 more than yesterday. Of them, 1958 are in the clinics and 587 in intensive care. Yesterday there were 583 IC patients, reports the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution.
Kuipers is pleased that the number of new infections is falling and that hospital admissions are rising less rapidly than in the previous weeks. “The beginning is there, but the increase is not over yet. It has not stopped yet.” In the past week, the number of hospital admissions has risen by 13 percent, from 30 to 45 percent before. Kuipers expects a leveling off within a few days, followed by a decline.
Quickly back to the old level
“It must level off quickly and the decline must be significant, otherwise we will run into problems with regular care that you can no longer postpone”, says Kuipers. Extra measures are therefore attractive from the perspective of hospitals.
New measures may not have an effect on the time and height of the peak, Kuipers thinks. They could, however, ensure that hospitals can scale up regular care more quickly. “A substantial part of the regular care has been scaled down, we want to return to the old level as soon as possible.”
Favorable development
About a third of the regular care has now been scaled down nationally. In the worst-case scenario, 75 percent of mainstream care would have to be postponed until the end of November, but that trend now seems broken. Kuipers said last Thursday that there was a favorable development in the corona figures and that the second package of measures by the cabinet seems to be working. There were a few days with less rise then, and the LCPS chairman called that development “fantastic”.
Still, it may take a while before we get back to the old level. The number of corona patients in the nursing and intensive care units must be reduced to 300 IC patients and 600 regular corona patients, Kuipers estimates.
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