Hospital still under pressure

At one point yesterday there were over 100 patients in …

At one point yesterday there were over 100 patients in A&E at Landspítali. mbl.is/Golli

The National University Hospital of Iceland (known in Icelandic as ‘Landspítali’) is still under heavy pressure following the arrival of many patients in recent days suffering from flu, stomach bugs and other common ailments. At one point yesterday, the A&E Department had over 100 patients, with ill patients being joined by those involved in accidents caused by recent icy conditions.

The hospital’s management issued a statement yesterday regarding the massive influx of patients and revealing that many of them are having to wait in A&E for admissions as all patient wards are full.

“The management met this afternoon [Tuesday] and by the time the meeting was over most patients has been admitted to wards. The decision was taken to postpone angioplasties, to ask most patient wards to absorb more, and to postpone the update of clinical systems in order to prevent bottlenecks,” the statement reads.

According to Guðlaug Rakel Guðjónsdóttir, Head of Emergency, Geriatrics and Rehabilitation Services at Landspítali, the management will be meeting again at 1pm today. “We need to see how things go this morning, get a better overview of today’s patient discharges and see how things progress,” she states.

Various contributing factors

Guðjónsdóttir explains that the pressure currently being experienced by the hospital is due to some extent to large numbers of people suffering from flu and other infectious ailments, but is also a consequence of problems with discharging patients. “We have some 80 patients here at Landspítali waiting to be transferred to nursing homes, but there are no places available,” she explains.

Many patients need to be in isolation to avoid the risk of various infections, but the hospital has few individual rooms. Guðjónsdóttir points out that the current high pressure is exacerbated by accommodation limitations.

So what can the management actually do to relieve pressure?

“There is very little that we can do, except discharge patients earlier and approach nearby hospitals for any spare beds they may have. These are our only avenues, since it is impossible to control the number of arriving patients,” Guðjónsdóttir admits.

She reminds people that they should not go to A&E unless strictly necessary.

 

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