(source: Sme/Jozef Jakubčo)
Slovak hospitals may be going through the toughest two weeks of this pandemic so far.
Experts that the Sme daily spoke to do not expect the effects of the nationwide testing and of the measures that have been in place since October 15, to reflect in the numbers of new hospitalisations until mid-November at the earliest.
Reports from hospitals in the hardest-hit regions confirm their estimates. The hospital in the spa town of Bojnice, which serves the entire region around the central-Slovak city of Prievidza, reports a lack of beds for COVID-19 patients and lack of health care staff to tend to the patients.
On November 5, the Health Ministry ordered the hospital to reprofile 52 beds, to be added to its already existing 52 COVID-19 beds, director Vladimír Vido told the MY Horná Nitra regional daily. The 104 beds that will serve COVID-19 patients will make up 20 percent of all the beds in the hospital.
"There will be a problem with staffing, but this is not exclusive to the Bojnice hospital, it is a Slovakia-wide problem," Vido said. His hospital has had 74 health care professionals with a confirmed COVID diagnosis this week.
