Hungary in need of international help to treat Covid patients as hospitals get overloaded?

Budapest coronavirus Coronavirus in Hungary healthcare system hospital Hungarian healthcare system Hungary

Photo: www.facebook.com/Koronavírus tájékoztató oldal

As Hungary enters the third wave of coronavirus, the country finds itself in a challenging situation. It is hard to tell for how long hospitals will be able to hold on before becoming completely overloaded without a single bed to spare.

According to János Szlávik, chief physician of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the South-Pest Centrum Hospital, the situation is dire. In an interview, he talked about their cases in the hospital, how

they are running out of beds reserved for coronavirus patients while more and more people need to be transferred to the ICU.

He also added that according to his information obtained from colleagues all over the country, the number of cases keep increasing while, in general, people suffer heavier from the infection, resulting in more people needing ventilation.

So far, a whole family having been infected and being sick together at the same time was quite rare. However, with the new variants of the virus that spread much quicker, it practically became normal, quotes telex.hu.

The British variant, for instance, as said Szlávik, spreads much faster and causes symptoms to be 10-15% more severe , which also explains the general increase of cases and the growing number of younger patients being admitted to the hospital.

As data on the whole of the Hungarian situation is relatively scarce,

we can not tell exactly where is the threshold of the Hungarian health care system, whether it is close to the verge of collapsing or there is still time left to make rapid and effective changes.

It makes it even harder to see a clear picture, as from time to time, doctors and nurses emerge and share their experience on social media about the scary and trying experience they have to endure. Sometimes they are backed by the hospital they work for, but in some cases, their employer establishment does not stand behind them, stating the same, or even deny such accusations.

Nevertheless, it is for sure that Hungarian numbers are quickly catching up to those of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is awful news as these two countries cannot tend appropriately to the most severe covid patients anymore. 444.hu reports that they simply gave up and tried to save their citizens’ lives by calling for international help. Germany, Poland and Switzerland came to their rescue; they already received over 200 patients from the two countries mentioned above, while Slovenia also offered their services.

When it comes to Hungary,

on the course of the past two weeks, the number of patients admitted to the hospital increased incredibly, by 73%.

To put this number into context, the “record” number of people treated in hospitals during the second wave was just a little over 8000, while the current number lags with around 100 cases.

The case of patients in need of artificial ventilation is even worse. Numbers have doubled in less than two weeks,

needless to say that the highest number of the previous wave was already reached and surpassed days ago, while the increase seems unstoppable. (here you can read about it more)

What is more alarming is the delay of countless operations and treatments that do not directly save lives but, in many cases, cause huge suffering for people not to have their much-needed surgery as soon as possible. These delays and changes were first introduced already in November. Such action is the intensive care of covid patients working at full capacity in many hospitals.

Having the establishment and the number of beds to receive patients is just one aspect. The other side of the coin might be even harder to believe and accept, namely that

simply there is not enough personnel, doctors and nurses able to tend for these patients.

You can send an ophthalmologist to help out, but he will need more than a couple of training hours to know exactly what to do and how.

In a situation like this, where there is already a lack of personnel, where until recently not even all of them where inoculated, thus they were much more responsive to the virus or to suffer greatly from the symptoms; the number of professionals not accepting to sign the new contract forced on them by the government, and thus leaving the health care system, is like a sword driven through the heart.