Covid patients will only be treated at West Tallinn Hospital in future
The capital's hospitals are closing their coronavirus departments as the need for hospital care has significantly decreased compared to the peak or the pandemic. West Tallinn Central Hospital with continue to treat coronavirus patients.
In March, Tallinn hospitals opened new coronavirus departments and the ambulance was sending Tallinn residents across the county to other hospitals. But now, the situation has changed drastically.
"In the north region, the number of people needing hospital treatment has decreased drastically. When on the peak days, we had 525 patients in the north region hospitals, then the current number is 50," head of the northern medical staff Urmas Sule said.
On Wednesday (May 26) the northern medical staff discussed how the treatment of coronavirus patients will be organized in the future. Coronavirus patients who are already being treated will not be transferred to other hospitals, but in the future, no new patients will be sent to the North Estonian Regional Hospital and the East Tallinn Central Hospital. The treatment of coronavirus patients will be taken to the coronavirus department of Lääne-Tallinn Central Hospital.
"It is logical to not hospitalize people with new infectious diseases in other hospitals if we have beds in the infectious disease departments," Sule said.
Nearly 130 coronavirus patients were treated at the West Tallinn Central Hospital during the peak time, there are currently 50 beds, but even this is too many as only one or two coronavirus patients are treated every day.
"Today, the average patient is around 60-67-years-old, there are older patients as well. These are, of course, unvaccinated people and people who get infected either in the family circle or at work," Arkadi Popov, head of West Tallinn Central Hospital, said.
In the orthopedic department of the West Tallinn Central Hospital, which had become a symbol in the media, where the most difficult patients were treated, normal work was restored a few weeks ago, and now the treatment of coronavirus patients is directed to the infection department.
Sule said that the need for hospital treatment in the Northern region has decreased much faster than in the Southern region, where 116 patients were treated on Wednesday morning. A large part of the patients there are Ida-Viru County's residents. In the Narva hospital in Ida-Viru County, closing the coronavirus department will not be possible anytime soon.
"We hope that the Valga's or the increase in infecting will start to decrease," Sule said.
The closure of the coronavirus departments provides an opportunity to start with scheduled treatment more extensively.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino