A leaked Hungarian ministry letter expects much higher coronavirus deaths per day

No improvement in the death rate is expected, according to data from Monday morning, which reveal that 9,046 people were infected with coronavirus, and nearly 200 people died in Hungary due to COVID-19 in a day. Currently, 11,276 patients are in hospital, of whom 1,340 are on ventilators.

This means a new negative record in Hungary. According to the News of the RTL Klub television channel, this could worsen even more, reports Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu. RTL Híradó bases the aggravation of the situation on an internal ministerial letter. According to this letter,

the Hungarian ministry expects 14,000 infections and 250 or more deaths a day due to the coronavirus.

This is especially worrying because hospitals are already in a difficult position. Healthcare workers can barely withstand the shifts and are still overworked. According to another letter received by RTL Híradó, the Heim Pál Children’s Hospital can also accept patients with coronavirus under the age of 35. In addition, healthcare for children must also be provided on an ongoing basis.

Zoltán Szabad, President of the Trade Union of Hungarian Doctors, told RTL Híradó about the situation of Hungarian doctors. “These people cannot even recharge after these exhausting shifts. The more tired a doctor is, the more likely they are to make a mistake, and the same is true for other healthcare workers,” said Zoltán Szabad. Gergely Gulyás, on the other hand, said at the latest government press conference that there is no capacity problem in the Hungarian hospitals. The government spokesman said hospital staffing problems could be eliminated with the involvement of residents and medics.

However, in the intensive care unit and in the case of ventilators, serious professional training is required.

Zoltán Szabad said that it does matter what kind of qualified professional is put into such a position. It could easily be that the best surgeon in a hospital is not the best fit for the coronavirus intensive care unit, as the two areas of work and specialities are very different.

• read also: Hungary reports record number of COVID-19 patients in ICU – March 22, 2021

According to László Szijjártó, the Győr-Moson-Sopron County president of the Hungarian Medical Chamber, there is a state of emergency in healthcare institutions. They are trying to alleviate the burden on hospital workers with a volunteer project. As part of this, volunteers are prepared with 2-3 hours of training to help in the COVID-19 unit. Volunteers do not help in the intensive care unit or in handling ventilators, but they can still be helpful. The project started this weekend. The hope is that this will help to deal with the growing third wave of the coronavirus epidemic.

• Big trouble: 5,500 healthcare workers quit in Hungary
• 70,000 Hungarians set to lose access to public healthcare

Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu