11 physicians working in the Emergency Service of İzmir Çiğli Training and Research Hospital caught Covid-19.
While 32 physicians were actively working in the emergency department of the hospital, 11 physicians, 9 of whom were specialists and 2 of whom were practitioners, were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the last week. Moreover, although the test results of 2 more physicians were negative, their clinical and tomography findings were detected to be compatible with Covid-19.
Talking to soL, a health worker said that the number of positive patients in the hospital has already exploded in the past month, but this explosion in positive cases among physicians in the last week is remarkable.
At this stage, it is expected that other emergency room physicians’ shift hours will increase or other physcicians in the hospital will be asked to keep a watch, instead of emergency room physicians, most of whom are in the quarantine at home.
"Latest masks are of poor quality"
An anonymous health worker stated that one of the reasons for the explosion of the cases in the emergency room in the last week is the poor quality of the latest personal protective equipment.
The health worker said, "The most recent N95 masks they gave were very bad. The increase in asymptomatic patients coming to the emergency room with other complaints is also effective," adding that the glasses that were given were broken quickly and it was very difficult to replace the broken glasses on the same day.
It was stated that 3 clinics and emergency services opened for the pandemic in the hospital were working above their capacity, there was a great increase in white code cases, and also increased spats among health workers due to excessive stress and fatigue.
Patients waiting for a stretcher on the ground
It is stated that emergency patients who come to the hospital with an ambulance crouch down by the wall and wait for a wheelchair or stretcher.
The hospital management wants to establish 2 more Covid clinics, where emergency physicians will work, in addition to the 3 polyclinics reserved for the pandamic. Meanwhile emergency service workers are still reacting to the admission of non-emergency green field patients to the service.
The health worker told soL that they are feeling like galley slaves instead of health workers.
