Photo: ANP
Hospitals are so busy caring for patients with flu or the RS virus that they sometimes have to transfer people to other hospitals in the same region. This should prevent the care from getting bogged down over time. It has not yet been necessary to take people to other parts of the country and it is not clear whether this will be necessary later, says the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) in response to a report in the AD.
These weeks, the Netherlands is experiencing the largest flu wave since the spring of 2020, at the start of the corona pandemic. “At the moment it is fitting and measuring in the hospitals. In winter it is often extremely busy, but the combination of flu, RS and other viruses means that the load is now very high. Solutions are being sought within regions if a hospital in a region is no longer able to admit people. That’s normal protocol when it’s extremely busy,” said the LCPS.
The center was established in March 2020 to distribute corona patients across the country. They were moved by ambulance or helicopter to give hospitals more air. According to the LCPS, it is “unpredictable whether hospitals will have to start spreading patients again. That depends on what happens, we cannot look into a crystal ball.”