Several elective surgeries are canceled due to lack of capacity
WILLEMSTAD.- CMC is forced to cancel several elective surgeries in order to provide responsible patient care with the amount of personnel available. The planning department started contacting all the concerning patients today. The Intensive Care (IC) department at CMC is reaching its capacity; pressure on the Emergency department and other personnel continues augmenting, and an additional nursing ward has been partially converted into a COVID-19 ward. While the number of COVID-19 patients continues augmenting, the number of infected colleagues reaches more than 100 in isolation and several more in quarantine due to close contact with infected persons.
At this moment, there are 31 hospitalized patients due to COVID-19, of which 7 are in the IC unit. Although the IC unit can accommodate 16 beds (8 High Care, 8 Medium Care), the current maximum capacity based on the available personnel to give responsible care is 10 patients. In terms of Intensive Care patients that are not COVID-19 related, there are no spaces left for responsible patient care. CMC is expecting 12 medics and nurses from AMI to arrive in the coming week to reinforce the hospital.
Several factors play a role on the hospital pressure. In addition to the above-mentioned, the Emergency department is confronting a situation where several patients not requiring emergency care show up at the Emergency room with COVID-19 symptoms. CMC asks that you please contact your general practitioner and not go to the Emergency department if this is not necessary. If your General Practitioner refers you to the Emergency room, enter ONLY from the Emergency entrance on the side of the Colon shopping center.
