The challenges of COVID-19 in Vilnius: the number of patients is growing, hospitals are adapted to the treatment of the virus (photos)

As the number of coronavirus cases and patients increases, Vilnius city municipality continues to increase the capacity to treat this disease. Staff shortage is still recognized as the biggest challenge of the pandemic, but at the same time care is being taken to increase the number of inpatient treatment places.

The number of patients with COVID-19 is increasing

The Vilnius City Municipality reminds that the Vilnius City Clinical Hospital (VMKL) has been designated as a support hospital for the treatment of COVID-19 (after the regional COVID-19 hospital - Santaras Clinics is full). It was made available for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the end of October (Antakalnio St. 124 building), but the assistance has been provided since the spring.

Last week, the number of patients in this hospital was stable - 80-85 patients with the coronavirus were treated, and those discharged were replaced by new patients. However, that number jumped to 124 this weekend and was at 122 on Tuesday morning.

Capacity of hospitals to treat COVID-19

VMKL Hospital, which started with 30 beds for COVID-19 patients, has today prepared 130 beds for this purpose and assembled the appropriate staff.

In this hospital, part of the wards could accommodate two beds, although now there is only one. However, this requires additional oxygen "points", which have been installed by the municipality for the last week. The municipality also provided the hospital with the missing pulse oximeters.

When thinking about the delegation of inpatient treatment facilities for coronavirus patients, the VMKL polyclinic is also being considered as a possible option, where about 100 places could be installed without extremely large investments and transformations.

If you choose this option, you will also have to deal with personnel problems. In a critical case, the patients of this polyclinic could be temporarily entrusted to the family doctors of the Antakalnis polyclinic (Antakalnio str. 59), and the doctors of the VMKL polyclinic would be transferred after certain qualification training to treat patients with the coronavirus.

For now, the VMKL corps on Antakalnio g. is considered as a more realistic reserve of hospital places. 57, where, according to hospital director Narimantas Markevičius, at least 50 beds with supplied oxygen could be used after halving the provision of surgery and therapy services.

"According to the calculation of Santaras clinics, there are currently around 300 places created for coronavirus patients in the Vilnius region. A week ago, Santara clinic managers expressed the expectation that this number should be doubled as soon as possible, said Vilnius city municipalities head of administration Povilas Poderskis. - Of course, this would also require the merger of regional hospitals, which, unfortunately, we cannot influence, but we would very much hope for a statement of the will of the Ministry of Health Protection, because not one of them is inclined to refuse. And while that help is lacking, we must urgently look for our own reserves, taking care of the creation of a temporary hospital as well."

The municipality reminds that all these adaptations of hospitals for the treatment or care of COVID-19 take place at its own expense, since the Ministry of Health Protection, which allocated 50 million in August. EUR funding for the adaptation of hospitals to the treatment of COVID-19, no funding was allocated to hospitals belonging to the Vilnius municipality. Meanwhile Santara clinics received 14,2 million euros, and Kaunas clinics - about 10 million. euros.

Hospitals for COVID-19 care

When looking for a hospital where it would be possible to care for elderly patients who are already recovering from the coronavirus and who no longer need special treatment, St. Rock Hospital. The M. Marcinkevičius hospital is also being evaluated for this purpose, but the transfer of 200 nursing patients to other places would also have to be decided here.

In preparation for such an option, for the time being M. Marcinkevičius hospital has found the most suitable place for installing additional liquid oxygen tanks - it is needed not only for patients with coronavirus. The hospital's existing oxygen supply capacity is insufficient - although the hospital has 70 oxygenated beds, this number is immediately reduced significantly when the ventilator is activated in the intensive care unit.

The municipality is also negotiating with the Molėtai Hospital to have the possibility of transferring some nursing patients there. However, this first requires the decision of the Operations Manager.

Temporary hospital

The temporary hospital, which would be needed when other COVID-19 hospital beds are full, is planned to be installed in the exhibition center "Litexpo". The terms of the lease are being negotiated, and public procurement is being conducted in parallel for the purchase or lease of gas tanks, the installation of an oxygen system, and the provision of various equipment required for the medical facility. These contracts will not be activated until they are needed, but it is possible that the oxygen tanks will be pre-built or diverted to another hospital.

Vilnius city municipality is already receiving proposals from working or former doctors - they would like to help if a temporary hospital were opened.

Medical and personal protective equipment and reserve

During the urgent installation of "covid" departments, last week on behalf of the director of administration of the municipality, at least 100 institutions were approached, asking to lend various tools - from functional and intensive care beds and oxygen concentrators to tablets for patients to communicate with their relatives. Some of these tools have already been received as gifts.

The reserve of personal protective equipment for doctors, which the Vilnius city municipality has, is sufficient for this year and is consistently filled. The municipality still does not receive any information about the state reserve.

Problems with cases of COVID-19 in the education system

It is not the first time that the municipality receives questions from the parents of schoolchildren as to why the National Public Health Center (NVSC) does not promptly inform about the cases of COVID-19 that have occurred in the classroom and the necessary self-isolation. Therefore, this NVSC duty, consultations in such cases have to be performed by the Vilnius Public Health Office.

In response to complaints about the delay in information, the Vilnius City Municipality analyzed the system applied by NVSC for collecting and informing contacts with sick people, and found duplication of work in it, which hinders prompt notification of all residents in the risk group. The municipality submitted proposals to the NVSC on how to change this system.

Testing for COVID-19

At the mobile point in V. Gerulaitių st. 1 people can be examined per day. Last week, after the Ministry of Health asked to ensure that people applying to the mobile points were tested within 1100 hours, the Vilnius Public Health Office planned to increase this number to 24, but for now no additional shift is needed - on Monday morning, there were 1300 free places for testing at the Vilnius mobile point .

Working with data

Vilnius is updating its COVID-19 statistics page, here you will find more real-time information about the number of patients hospitalized in municipal hospitals: www.quarantine.lt/esoc.

From now on, the municipality will constantly inform about the news of the management of the coronavirus pandemic in the city of Vilnius.