– More and more young people go to the infectious diseases ward. Trying to go through the disease yourself at home often turns out badly for patients. I urge you not to ignore the symptoms of COVID-19, says Dr. Piotr Pobrotyn, director of the University Teaching Hospital in Wrocław, in an interview with Medexpress.
- According to the director of the hospital in Wrocław, the biggest problem at the moment is the staff shortage
- More and more younger patients are visiting infectious diseases wards, who previously tried to deal with the infection at home for a long time.
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Martyna Chmielewska, Medexpress: How is the facility doing during the coronavirus epidemic? Is the hospital in Wrocław lacking places for patients?
Piotr Pobrotyn, director of the University Teaching Hospital in Wrocław: We have a staff problem. There are many tasks set before the hospital. Our unit is responsible for starting the reserve hospital. At the moment, there are about 150 patients in it. We also have 10 ventilated stations at this location. We provide treatment of patients with SARS-CoV-2 virus in the area of gynecology and obstetrics, intensive care, and intensive care of children. We are the reference unit for the Dolnośląskie Voivodeship regarding infectious diseases of children.
In addition, we have a dispersed COVID-19 base in the facility at such departments as: orthopedics, neurosurgery, neurology, and internal diseases. At the moment we are making transfers of our own employees. We try to hire all interested parties from outside. We see the applications we use. In addition, we cooperate with fifth and sixth year students of the Medical University, with employees of the Faculty of Health Sciences. We have male nurses, nurses and paramedics whom we would like to hire for the clinical process. I mean the reserve hospital, where the number of beds is successively increased.
We know that infected people often hide who they have come into contact with. And all this so that these people would not be forced to go to quarantine. This is risky behavior. The virus is sneaky. We do not know whether the infection will be mild or severe. Does it often happen that patients end up in a hospital in Wrocław in a very serious condition because they ignored their symptoms?
More and more young patients go to the infectious diseases ward. We have patients with saturation level 60. This means they have undergone the coronavirus at home. It is a very difficult clinical condition. The recommendation is to go to the hospital below 95. A patient with less than 90% saturation should go to the hospital. Earlier, at home, you can rehabilitate the respiratory system. On the other hand, trying to go through the disease yourself at home often ends badly for patients. I urge you not to ignore the symptoms. If the saturation drops below 90 and we feel bad for another day, then the situation is electrifying. It is very difficult to deal with in the hospital.
- See also: How to treat COVID-19 at home? These drugs must not be taken
Do people infected with the coronavirus who are vaccinated go to the infectious diseases ward? How is the disease going on in these people?
We should all urge the public to vaccinate. In my opinion, only vaccinations will give a chance to fight the pandemic. Several people around us actually fell ill after vaccination. However, the course of the infection was very light.
Vaccinated persons should keep their distance, wear a mask, and disinfect their hands. The vaccinated can also carry the virus, i.e. they can infect other people in horizontal transmission. Vaccination does not absolve us from wearing masks and maintaining the epidemiological safety of the entire regime.
In what condition do patients go home? Are they independent and need care?
We try to discharge patients when they recover. We want them to be independent so that, with the support of their family, they can take care of themselves. We are a reference unit that uses 60-day ECMO technologies. We have a patient who has been connected to a ventilator for over XNUMX days. This shows the scale of the problem. The point is that we cannot put another seriously ill person into this position. You have to look for another place.
What are your biggest concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak?
What I fear most is the staff shortage. Our most serious problem is the nursing staff. At the moment, we are trying to connect clinics and locate our activities in such a way as to achieve the overriding goal, i.e. to treat the so-called whites, i.e. patients who do not have the virus. We have a strategy for a besieged fortress. This means we erase patients. We have a lot of infections from preventive swabs. Therefore, patients are sent back. We need personnel to treat strokes, heart attacks, brain tumors, as well as personnel in the field of ENT, maxillofacial surgery and bone surgery.
Interviewer: Martyna Chmielewska / Medexpress
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