Zwolle hospital first in NL to cancel surgeries again in favor of Covid care
Update: The hospital clarified later that the difficult situation was also due to more patients arriving at the emergency room, and an increase in births.
The Isala hospital in Zwolle had to admit so many coronavirus patients in the past weeks that 20 patients waiting for a catch-up surgery again had their appointment canceled. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed this report by De Stentor.
"We have seen the admissions increase rapidly in recent weeks. There are now four or five people a day. At the beginning of October, we had four people in the nursing ward and one in the ICU. Now there are 20 people in the nursing ward and five in the ICU. That is the maximum we can handle now," said the spokeswoman.
On Saturday, three coronavirus patients had to be moved from the Isala nursing ward to another hospital in the southwest of the Netherlands. "Since September, we have also been doing surgeries on Saturdays to make up for postponed operations from the coronavirus period, but unfortunately, we now had to cancel 20 surgeries," said the spokeswoman. "We will see in the coming days how we will do with catch-up care. We will have to see what needs to be adjusted."
Reporting by ANP