Medical personnel protest covid-only hospital

Doctors and nurses at the Clinical Hospital in Dubrava protested on Tuesday for the second time in four days. Medical personnel are increasingly frustrated with a decision to convert the entire hospital to treat coronavirus patients only.

Following a protest rally on Friday, several dozen doctors, nurses and carers protested once again on Tuesday outside the hospital, because they say patients in Zagreb's eastern suburbs will be left without vital emergency and acute care services.

Josip Ćurić, assistant director for quality control, said the decision was turning everyone into second-class patients, including those being treated for COVID-19.

"Patients are being treated in inadequate facilities without basic hygienic conditions and often without daylight and without proper electrical installations. They are also being treated with donated old ventilators in a hospital without a full-time infectologist and without a microbiological laboratory," said Ćurić.

Neurosurgeon, Fadi Almahariq, said doctors and nurses were defending the integrity of the hospital. He said the medical staff were "highly qualified and used to working under difficult conditions" but that doctors were unable to provide patients with their regular level of care.

At the same time, Health Minister Vili Beroš he would not reconsider his decision to turn the hospital into a facility to treat Covid-19 patients only. He said he was not under the impression that the health care system as a whole was near collapse, adding that he would gladly resign if that was the case.

Beroš vowed that the Dubrava hospital would receive additional medical staff from other hospitals around the city.

Source: HRT