The hospital has been forced to suspend three doctors, a pharmacist, several nurses, assistant nurses, sanitary and technical staff as they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19. Some of them are replaced by existing resources, such as nurses from the clinic who now help in hospital departments.
The head of the hospital, Grigorijs Semjonovs, said that the situation had suddenly improved over the weekend when the majority of the unvaccinated 324 employees started vaccination. The hospital has a total of 1628 employees.
"Really, we had come to the moment of closing down the departments and limiting emergency medical treatment. We have managed to address and motivate a large number of employees in a few days," Semjonovs said.
It would be nearly impossible to replace 300 employees at once, but with the current situation, the hospital would attract students. The local medical university college is immediately ready to help with 40 people, but technical workers will take bigger loads.
“It's about three nurses, if I'm not mistaken, nine assistants and four sanitary workers. We will start contacting and attracting students,” said the hospital head Semjonovs.
The hospital hopes to also attract volunteers and university students as assistants to reduce the burden of existing employees.
“If we're talking about Covid-19 departments or other departments, it tends to be that there are 12 to 20 patients per nurse. There should be eight, according to normal practice and also volume. Consequently, it is a huge burden,” said Semjonovs.
The hospital and clinic work in Daugavpils is expected to continue fully in the coming week.
