Health Minister Vili Beros said on Tuesday that KB Dubrava was the most appropriate hospital in Zagreb for treating grave COVID patients and that he was responsible for converting it into a COVID hospital, which prompted its staff today to stage another protest.
KB Dubrava staff protested for the second time in five days, disgruntled with the situation in the hospital, the organisation of work and the health administration’s decision to convert the entire hospital into a COVID treatment centre.
“That wasn’t my idea. It was developed by a Health Ministry expert team. As minister, I accepted it, I agree with it and am fully responsible for it,” Beros told the press when asked how it was decided that the Dubrava university hospital should treat only grave COVID cases.
“We’ll do our best for KB Dubrava to work perfectly. I believe the staff will understand what this is about. Due to certain dysfunctions, including a power outage, the Steering Council met and we requested a statement,” Beros said, agreeing that “it ‘s not normal for staff to protest twice in five days.”
A journalist remarked that the health system had collapsed.
“I don’t have the impression that the system has collapsed. If it happens, I will resign. As long as I am minister, KB Dubrava will be a hospital for COVID patients. That’s my responsibility to those patients, not forgetting the other patients, who will be provided for in other hospitals,” said Beros.
He said he understood the staff and that the dissatisfaction was also due to a dualism in running the hospital until now. “Not everyone is aware of the role or the importance of KB Dubrava. The new leadership will need to clearly communicate that to all the employees and tell them their concept.”
Beros went on to say that his ministry was preparing for a tsunami of patients. “Those are the projections we’ve had for a long time and that’s why we are centralising the treatment of COVID patients.”
KB Dubrava is Zagreb’s youngest hospital and is optimal for receiving COVID patients. “We don’t have those conditions anywhere else. All other hospitals are much older… without the necessary installations,” said the minister.
At the moment, KB Dubrava is in transition, Block C is being prepared to receive COVID patients and the staff are providing great healthcare to the 200 patients already there, he added.
He said 110 outside medical staff had arrived at the hospital to help.
The KB Dubrava doctors and nurses who can’t treat COVID patients due to their specialisation will be deployed to other hospitals to treat other patients, Beros said, calling on those protesting to present “an alternative for providing adequate care for COVID patients.”
Asked about the hospital’s lack of ventilators, he said the other 500 were in hospitals across Croatia, that they were more or less in use and that they were being relocated in line with priorities. He added that three ventilators were sent to the Varazdin city hospital today.
He dismissed citizens’ complaints that elderly COVID patients were being discharged from KB Dubrava without criteria, saying that if it were so, it would be a big professional oversight. “It’s true that a certain number of positive patients are being discharged for home treatment. But no one is being discharged before their condition allows it.”
As for claims by protesting staff that their patients had become second class patients put in hallways in unhygienic conditions, Beros quoted intensive care coordinator Ivica Luksic as saying that the conditions would not be the most appropriate until Building C was ready, but that nobody lacked anything.
