The various hospitals in Flanders are coming under increasing pressure now that the corona figures have been rising again for some time. In some hospitals, operations are being postponed, in others operating theaters are even being closed. An overview of the measures taken.
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It East Limburg Hospital (ZOL) will close five operating rooms from tomorrow. The ZOL currently has 47 patients with Covid-19, eleven of whom are in intensive care. “In this way we want to free up staff and beds for corona patients.” The hospital is also launching a call to find nurses to provide temporary reinforcements.
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The ZOL is not the only hospital in Limburg that is being forced to reduce regular care. Last Tuesday it decided Jessa Hospital in Hasselt even to do that. “Where in the second and third wave we were only able to perform five operations with an intensive care stay every day, we need to reduce this to three from next week,” medical director of the Jessa Hospital Jos Vandekerkhof said at the time. Furthermore, only one visitor is allowed again and preferably one regular visitor.
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By closing operating rooms, operations are inevitably postponed. That already happened in UZ Leuven where a patient was taken off the operating table at the last minute. The brain surgery of 58-year-old Guy Van Rompaey was canceled because there was not enough room in intensive care. “That morning, corona patients came in in acute emergency. This painfully demonstrates the difficult choices our doctors have to make when it comes to balancing Covid-19 care and regular care,” said Professor Johan Van Loon.
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In the General Hospital Saint Mary in Halle it also gets busier. All beds for corona patients have been taken in intensive care and the corona department has been scaled up again since Wednesday. “In practice, this means that you are reducing capacity for the Surgery department. At the moment it is still feasible and no operations need to be postponed. We have to plan more and see what the capacity is day by day. Vaccinated and unvaccinated people are admitted to our hospital, but the unvaccinated are in the majority. That percentage varies,” says care manager Bart Nouwen of AZ Sint-Maria.
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There is no reason why we should reserve places for corona patients, when that would not happen for people with a heart attack or cancer.
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See also below: UZ Gent refuses to keep beds available for corona patients
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UZ Gent says, again, not to keep beds free for corona patients. “We are not going to give priority to corona patients, there is no longer any support for that,” says Frank Vermassen, chief physician at UZ Gent. “As a hospital, it is our job to provide all patients with the best possible care. This must be done in an efficient manner, which means that it is no longer justifiable to privilege one particular group of patients over others. There is no reason why we should reserve places for corona patients, while that would not happen for people with a heart attack or cancer.” However, the government asks hospitals to keep 25 percent of their beds free. “That may be,” Vermassen responds to VTM NIEUWS. “But those beds are not available at the moment. That does not exclude the possibility that corona patients will still receive optimal care, only we will no longer postpone other care.”
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Elsewhere, the Covid Safe Ticket (CST) is introduced for visitors. For example, it is no longer possible to visit patients in the AZ Sint-Blasius in Dendermonde without CST.
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Also the Saint-Trudo Hospital (Sint-Truiden) asks visitors for a valid CST. The hospital emphasizes that this rule only applies to visitors. Unvaccinated people still receive proper care.
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read here more about the measures that have already been taken by certain hospitals.
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Read more about the current corona situation in this file.
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