"All hands on deck!" - I hear more and more in the context of the coronavirus. I feel like asking - where were our boats and captains' hands in January? - asks Milena Kruszewska, President of the Watch He alth Care Foundation.
Oxford - the university hospital on full alert. Doctors in protective clothing - gowns, masks and gloves practice on mannequins the procedures for caring for the youngest patients infected with the virus. They go from providing assistance in an ambulance to admitting a child to a hospital and caring for it in a ward. Krakow - the university hospital suspends admitting patients to wards and scheduled procedures because there is a lack of hygiene measures for medical staff.
"All hands on deck!" - I hear more and more in the context of the coronavirus. I feel like asking - where were our boats and captains' hands in January? Where have they been for the last dozen years or so, when no government has had the courage to treat the he alth care system as a priority?
In February, temporary cabins were set up in the UK so that a patient suspected of the virus would not come to the emergency room or clinic full of people, but to enter the cabin and follow the instructions. At that time in Poland, I learned from government institutions that it is worth cooking eggs carefully in order to protect against the coronavirus, and everyone was happy about the information posters that were created overnight, thanks to the unwavering involvement of people from the industry, but not Ministry of He alth.
At the end of February, it was announced in Singapore that the president, ministers, high-ranking officials and members of parliament would give up part of their salaries, and public officials from the first front in the fight against the virus (e.g. doctors) would receive a special financial allowance. At the same time, the rulers in Poland resigned from publishing photos on the web from meetings of the most important people in the country regarding the virus - with the smiles of the participants and a Coke on the table. Fatty binders and serious expressions began to appear in the frames. Serious faces were also accompanied by representatives of the Ministry of He alth, when they easily accused the chaos and ignorance of the procedures in the hospital in Krotoszyn, after the patient spent 88 hours waiting for the test results in it.
It's March until todayrepresentatives of patient organizations alert that no procedures have been developed for cancer patients, chronic patients or patients with rare diseases. Just wait for the accusation that it's the patients' fault because they got sick. Quarantines are already underway in many places, and in others people do not know how to prepare for them, and they have various questions - if I have a dog, do I have to collect its droppings from the floor for two weeks? More and more questions, less and less answers.
In South Korea, Australia, Germany and Great Britain, tests for coronavirus are carried out in the form of "drive-through". A patient suspected of having a virus drives a car to the hospital, a trained employee takes a sample for testing, the patient returns home. Results within 24-48 hours. In Singapore and Hong Kong, masks are worn by both the sick and the he althy - or rather those who consider themselves he althy, because the problem is that today it is difficult to be so sure. The Taiwan economy minister announced that if Taiwan's production of surgical face masks exceeds domestic demand, it will consider supplying these masks to other countries. This is good, because, for example, the Mazowiecki Specialist Hospital in Radom commissioned sewing disposable masks on its own - they are no longer available in wholesalers. Cost: PLN 6 per item, with prices, in normal circumstances, oscillating around 17 groszy. Perhaps it is about cotton; if so, then there will be at least reusable ones that can be sterilized. Like during the war.
Poland - standing with beetroot, potato and spirit, cannot provide citizens with disinfectants, even the simplest and very effective ones, such as 70% ethanol or hydrogen peroxide. We import preparations based on ethyl alcohol from Germany, and speculative prices in wholesalers reach PLN 14 per 100 ml, and even PLN 60 on the market.
We take many actions that are not bad, which does not mean that they are appropriate to the situation and on time. And there is no time to make up for repetition of nonsense about how well prepared we were for a pandemic. I understand the need to reassure citizens, but you can do it without lying to your eyes. We have not been and are not prepared - a system that is a cluster of ad hoc solutions resulting from the interests of a given team in the Ministry of He alth, and not a strategic coherent plan, will never be the foundation for any preparations. For years, spending on he alth care has fluctuated around 4.5-4.7% of GDP, significantly below the European average, which we may achieve in a few years using the creative accounting method, provided that today's average stands still. We are in a group of several countries whose citizens contribute the most to the treatment process from their ownprivate money. Poland is the only EU country with an increasing mortality from breast cancer. Intensive care units will barely throttle under strain without a pandemic. The National He alth Fund spends huge amounts of money on hospital treatment, which is the most expensive treatment and treats prophylaxis negligently. Already every fifth doctor could retire, and more and more young people are thinking about working abroad, which usually guarantees better conditions, higher salaries and greater development opportunities.
I could go on like that for a long time. The only problem is that there is no captain on this boat.
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