Coronavirus Porvoo runs out of nurses and doctors – the city asked for help from a private company, but does not believe that the Defense Forces would help

Difficult the coronavirus situation has been evident in recent weeks in Porvoo, where the city has had to give up emergency health care altogether.

The health center is particularly burdened by tracing coronary infections and writing quarantine and isolation decisions, says the leading doctor Kati Liukko.

“Corona infections have exploded in my hands,” he says.

According to Liuko, the city’s infection curve is almost vertical, and the development was already visible before Christmas. As a result, the city decided to cancel non-emergency health center hours for three weeks until January 7th.

However, no one is left without treatment, and the city has purchased non-urgent treatment from a private medical center. In three weeks, about a hundred nursing times and a hundred medical hours were transferred there.

“However, we didn’t want to make patients suffer.”

On Monday was told the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has asked The Defense Forces to prepare for official assistance in coronation operations.

Minister of Family and Basic Services Krista Kiuru (sd) told MTV News that help is needed for testing, tracking and vaccination.

Despite the difficult situation in Porvoo, no request for official assistance has been considered.

“I don’t really see it resolving this issue,” Liukko says.

Tracers have to undergo short training for this purpose, and according to Liuko, it would take time too if existing tracers were to train completely new ones for the job.

Another congestion in Porvoo is in issuing isolation and quarantine decisions, which can only be made by infectious disease doctors.

At least Espoo and Vantaa have previously requested official assistance from the Defense Forces.

Read more: STM calls on Defense Forces to prepare “urgently” for official assistance: about 5,000 people to help with testing, tracking and vaccination

Done Despite these efforts, Porvoo’s infection surveillance is lagging behind. Those who have a positive test result will not be able to call until a week after the result.

The special arrangement with the private company expires on Friday. According to Liuko, the city is currently considering how to solve the problem in the future. Reception times have not been canceled, at least so far.

He asks if a bureaucracy like infection tracing and isolation and quarantine regulations is now appropriate. Some people need an official order for an infectious disease daily allowance, for example.

“At least it doesn’t seem to be quite in line with our core mission at the moment. This should be handled in a different way. ”

Hospitals have been pushing down non-urgent surgical treatment for quite some time. Liukko believes that the downsizing of non-urgent activities will also begin to show in health centers.

Porvoo is not alone with its problem. For example, the city of Loviisa informed that there are very few employees at its emergency reception on Wednesday and the city is asking to avoid dealing in matters other than very urgent ones.