“We cannot afford to make wrong decisions!” – writes in a letter to the Małopolska voivode prof. dr hab. Maciej Małecki, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University – Collegium Medicum. It is about the plans to transform the University Hospital in Krakow into the so-called coordinating hospital for Małopolska, i.e. the main COVID-19 treatment facility.
- The reason why I am sending this correspondence is deep concern about the decision to transform our facility into a so-called coordinating hospital in Małopolska, which (…) is associated with a complete transformation into a unit caring for patients with COVID-19 infection – writes prof. Małecki
- The Dean also reminds that during the spring wave of the epidemic, it was this facility that was the same hospital for Krakow. He considers this decision of the Ministry of Health to be wrong
- “Hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical workers have undertaken extremely exhausting, responsible and high-risk work with patients suffering from COVID19” – writes prof. Małecki, adding that caring for COVID-19 patients was often far from the learned specializations of doctors from the Krakow hospital
- «We hear now that the transformations are to go even further, that the next, perhaps all, clinics are to be transformed into the so-called covid troops. That we may completely stop taking care of patients with cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart attack »- we read in the letter
- You can read more about the coronavirus epidemic on the TvoiLokony home page
A few days ago, the Ministry of Health announced that 16 coordination hospitals will be created – one in each province. These hospitals would only deal with treating COVID-19 patients in a given region, as well as coordinating patient movement in that area. What about the other patients currently treated at the University Hospital? “I would like to remind you that already in March this year the transformation of the SU in Krakow into a single-name hospital aroused great controversy, because it concerned the most modern hospital unit in Poland, which was the seat of highly specialized departments, acting as reference centers of care not only for our voivodship, but also for the entire country” – writes to the voivode prof. dr hab. Maciej Małecki. The letter is also addressed to the Minister of Health.
Here is the full text of the letter:
«Dear Mr. Governor:
I am addressing this letter to you as the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, the oldest and most prestigious Polish medical university, and also as the head of one of the clinical departments of the University Hospital in Krakow. The reason why I am sending this correspondence is deep concern about the decision to transform our facility into a so-called coordinating hospital in Małopolska, which, according to the recent media statements by the Minister of Health, Adam Niedzielski, is associated with a complete transformation into a unit that takes care of patients with COVID19 infection.
Let me remind you that already in March this year, the transformation of the University of Life Sciences in Krakow into a one-name hospital aroused great controversy, because it concerned the most modern hospital unit in Poland, which was the seat of highly specialized departments, acting as reference centers of care not only for our voivodeship, but also for the entire country. What’s more, it is also a unit that carries out teaching and research tasks for three faculties of the UJCM, in which several hundred scientific projects are carried out, many within the framework of international cooperation networks.
Małopolska was the only voivodeship whose authorities made – in my opinion the wrong – decision to fight the pandemic with a university hospital. Since then, hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical workers have taken over the extremely exhausting, responsible and high personal risk work with patients suffering from COVID19.
It is worth emphasizing that these tasks were often performed by doctors whose learned specialization is not related to the nature of the pandemic – for example, surgeons, urologists, neurologists, ENT specialists, cardiologists, and angiologists. Professionals with unique skills, the potential of which could not and still is not properly used. At the same time, doctors who are employees of the university tried and are still trying to combine these medical challenges with scientific and didactic work, after all, over a thousand students study at the SU in Krakow every year. Some teams have been working with COVID-19 patients continuously since March 2020.
I observe with concern their increasing extreme fatigue, the increasing frequency of infections, those acquired in the hospital and – more and more often – those from outside.
We hear now that the transformations are to go even further, that the next, perhaps all, clinics are to be transformed into the so-called covid troops. That we may completely stop taking care of patients with cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart attack. That the conditions of our work with students, future doctors and nurses, so necessary for our health care system, are to be deteriorated further. Not to mention the collapse of ongoing research.
I urge you to carefully consider the decisions that are just being taken. The Covid-19 epidemic requires sacrifice from the entire medical community, from all of us, including the employees of the University of Life Sciences in Krakow, but its burdens should be distributed wisely and fairly. We cannot afford to make wrong decisions!
Poważaniem Z,
Prof. dr hab. Maciej Małecki
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, UJCM »
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