Hungary helps: the government sends hundreds of paramedics to Slovakia

while the number of patients is growing unstoppably.

We reported before that a Hungarian doctor penned a long letter about the difficult circumstances they have to work under in the healthcare system. She wrote that what a coronavirus-infected patient needs is to be “accompanied by appropriate intensive care unit staff 24 hours a day: an anesthesiologist, an intensive care physician, and an intensive care specialist nurse. And even then, the chances of recovery are modest.”

According to Dr Máté-Horváth,

the biggest problem throughout this pandemic has been the low number of intensive care nurses. 

“We are talking about a very special area of ​​being a nurse, one that they have learned for years and practised for a long time after their studies. They can care for a ventilated patient, set up a ventilator at a basic level, replace vital drug pumps with lightning speed, catheterise, puncture an artery, operate a central venous cannula, place a heart monitor, and wind complicated cables in the correct order to the patient. They see if a patient is deteriorating, they see if there is trouble, and they jump and act. They are a very special team.

Because of the shortage of trained professionals, a team of two thousand specialists must provide care for intensive care patients 24 hours a day (2-3 shifts), 7 days a week.

An intensive care nurse can only take care of two ventilated, unstable patients at a time, according to the rules of the profession. Although this number may seem low, it is “an important quality indicator” of the care the ICU provides.

Source: 444.hu