NVIC: intensive care units cannot expand to 1,700 beds | Inland

The fact that the previously agreed number cannot be achieved is partly due to the “delayed care.” People who could not be treated during the first and second wave must now be helped. In addition, there is less staff available, “the outflow has turned out to be higher than the influx.” According to the authors, this is due to “constantly looking for the border.” Hospitals also suffer from high absenteeism due to illness.

The intensive care units currently have just over 900 beds available, of which nearly 800 are in use. These are not only corona patients, but also people with other serious conditions, the so-called non-Covid patients. The capacity can first be increased to 1150 beds, but then hospitals must “assess more rigorously which patients will and which will not benefit from IC admission.” Moreover, such an increase cannot last too long.

If enough outsiders step in to help the IC doctors and nurses, the capacity could eventually increase further to 1,350 beds. That can be maintained for four weeks, but the quality of care will then deteriorate, write NVIC and V&VN IC. If the number of patients exceeds this limit, or if it takes longer than four weeks, ‘code black’ comes into play. Then doctors have to choose which patients can still be helped and who cannot. The latter people can then die.

At the height of the first wave, in April last year, more than 1,500 people were in intensive care units. These were almost exclusively corona patients. Regular care was then almost completely at a standstill. In the second, third and fourth wave, an attempt was made to continue regular care as much as possible. If possible, patients were not treated in an intensive care unit but in a nursing ward, and in the case of mild complaints people could get sick at home instead of in the nursing ward. Despite this, the number of patients in the ICUs had risen to over 1200 by April of this year. Due to all the measures to spare the ICUs, more helping hands are needed in the nursing wards. These people cannot then help out on an IC. As a result, the capacity decreases.

—