Two operating rooms will be closed for two weeks due to staff sickness, postponing about 80 regular operations
The Martini Hospital – the largest hospital in Groningen after the UMCG – is already scaling down regular care due to a spike in staff illnesses, reports the GIC.
About ten percent of hospital staff are sick at home. Some have a cold, while others are unable to work because of the seasonal flu or self-isolation. The hospital is also now receiving more and more Coronavirus patients, meaning that its ‘flexible capacity’ has almost been used up.
“This means that there is still very little stretch [for new patients], and that worries me”, says chairman of the board Hans Feenstra. “It is important that our colleagues remain deployable, especially given the expectation that this situation will continue in the coming months. We have therefore decided to scale back healthcare to a limited extent in order to create space in the planning. ”
All patients will be called to postpone their procedure. After two weeks, the situation will be reviewed.
Hans Feenstra: “We realise that it is really annoying for patients that we are cancelling a number of operations in the short term. By temporarily closing two ORs, we hope to keep the impact as small as possible.”
Image via Wikimedia user Kevster. License here.
