MINSK, 20 October (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko is visiting Minsk Oblast Clinical Hospital, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko arrived at the hospital immediately after visiting the nearby Alexandrov National Cancer Center. There, the head of state got acquainted with the state of affairs and the organization of medical care for cancer patients.
Chief physician of Minsk Oblast Clinical Hospital Aleksandr Linkevich reported to the president on the structure of the hospital, the work in the conditions of COVID-19 and the provision of medical care to patients with coronavirus in the repurposed departments.
The hospital has 947 beds: 410 in the therapeutic unit, 500 in surgery and 37 in intensive care. The hospital lacks space, and therefore some of its patients are treated in the children's oblast hospital. Plans are in place to construct a new building to solve the problem. According to the project, the new facility will have an expanded intensive care unit.
The president stressed that practicality should be the priority. After all, sometimes even the existing bedspace is never fully occupied. “Doctors always want to have more beds, more space. That is why when we are talking about a new building (and you want to have more than ten operating theaters there), my immediate question is whether we could do with fewer. Not because it is expensive or anything. Of course, if you need ten, it should be ten. But if you can do with five, then we will build five,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Minsk Oblast Hospital began to admit COVID-19 patients in July 2020. In January-September, more than a thousand people were treated here. The hospital allocated 220 beds for COVID-19 patients. Departments of rheumatology, pulmonology, neurology, nephrology, cardiology and surgery were re-purposed to admit COVID-19 patients. In addition to that, the clinic allocated 22 intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients in the anesthesiology and intensive care department.
During the visit to Minsk Oblast Hospital, Aleksandr Lukashenko entered the ‘red zone' where COVID-19 patients are treated. As of 19 October, 203 patients are being treated in the re-purposed infectious diseases departments of the hospital, of who 21 are in serious condition and 11 are on mechanical ventilation.
