RO authorities add more intensive care beds as severe Covid-19 cases increase

More intensive care beds will be made available in hospitals in Bucharest as the healthcare system is faced with a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, the Health Ministry announced.

In Bucharest, 47 intensive care beds for grownups, four neonatal intensive care beds, and 140 intermediary therapy beds for Covid-19 patients will be added, the ministry said.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of cases in a short period of time,” Andreea Moldovan, a state secretary with the Health Ministry, explained, quoted by News.ro.

After talks were held with the managers of Bucharest hospitals, the ministry will also discuss the situation of intensive care and intermediary therapy beds available in county hospitals all over the country.

The ministry also stressed the need to have the Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 circuits reorganized in all hospitals and asked hospital managers for solutions for new circuits that would allow medical units to increase their capacity to treat severe Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, Raed Arafat, the head of Romania’s Emergency Services Department (DSU), told television station Digi24 that a recent analysis shows a decrease in the number of available intensive care beds from October-November of last year to now. This happened because Leţcani modular hospital closed and because other hospitals that treated coronavirus patients went back to their regular activity. He said Bucharest hospitals would receive additional mobile units.

Arafat also spoke of a new wave of the pandemic in Romania and pointed to the disadvantage of having more patients admitted to intensive care units than during the previous wave. “We start with over 900 patients in intensive care units, compared to the previous wave when there were around 500 patients in intensive care,” he told Digi24.

Beatrice Mahler, the manager of the Marius Nasta Institute, one of the main Bucharest hospitals treating Covid-19 cases, said the institution has recently seen much younger patients on average compared to the previous year.

Intensive care units in Romania under pressure again