Flu epidemic: Overwhelmed children’s emergency departments – Zurich decides on immediate measures
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flu epidemicOverwhelmed children’s emergency stations – Zurich decides on immediate measures
The Zurich hospitals with children’s emergency stations are overcrowded. The government council has now approved subsidies of four million francs for temporary immediate measures.
That’s what it’s about
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According to the government council, the high utilization of the children’s emergency stations in combination with the strong spread of the RSV leads to an overload of the children’s hospitals in the canton of Zurich and throughout Switzerland.
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The high number of infections also affects the supply of medicines in Switzerland.
Zurich hospitals with children’s emergency departments are at the limit: in addition to the RS virus, which hits many children unusually hard, the influenza epidemic hits with full force. Added to this is the shortage of skilled workers in the healthcare sector, which is becoming increasingly critical. Due to a lack of capacity, a sick baby recently even from the Zurich children’s hospital be relocated. The Zurich government council now wants to remedy the situation: it has approved subsidies of four million francs for 2023 for temporary immediate measures.
As the government council wrote in a statement on Thursday, the number of emergencies in the three Zurich hospitals with children’s emergency wards has increased by up to 30 percent compared to 2021. The consequences are longer waiting times, full occupancy of all available treatment places and severely limited possibilities for transfers. The temporary immediate measures are therefore necessary to ensure emergency child care in the canton of Zurich.
New coordination office and more staff
The children’s hospital in Zurich and the children’s clinics of the cantonal hospital in Winterthur and the city hospital in Zurich Triemli have therefore carried out organizational measures. With a new coordination office to be set up in the children’s hospital in Zurich, the planning of the available beds and the necessary transfers should take place centrally.
This is because the canton-wide high utilization of the children’s wards led to a significant coordination effort between the hospitals, which was currently only done by the doctors in the emergency ward. With the coordination center, the emergency stations and her personal relieved and fast and efficient processes are ensured during the transfers.
The government council writes that additional staff is also required to further relieve the children’s emergency stations. For this reason, the three children’s hospitals are to receive a financial contribution in order to be able to hire the additional staff needed to ensure emergency child care.
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