The number of patients admitted to hospitals not because of but with the coronavirus is increasing. This is due to the Omikron variant and the high number of infections in the Netherlands.
As of this week, hospitals have been splitting the care figures of corona patients according to the reason for the admission, as far as is known. For example, it is clear whether someone has been admitted because of the corona virus, or whether someone accidentally tests positive after being hospitalized. RIVM and the NICE foundation also distinguish a group whose admission has been influenced by Covid-19. The coronavirus has then “disrupted” an existing condition, such as diabetes or heart failure, for which the patients have to be hospitalized.
Out those numbers It turned out this week that 25 percent of corona patients in the nursing wards did not end up in hospital because of Covid-19. In intensive care units, that number is lower: about 13 percent.
These ‘coincidences’ have so far been included in the hospital figures, but they distort the picture of the health care tax. A patient who accidentally has the coronavirus is of “a different category” than people who have been admitted because of Covid-19, says internist-infectiologist Marvin Berrevoets of the Elisabeth-Tweesteden Hospital in North Brabant. A patient admitted with the coronavirus – for example someone who has an appendectomy, but tests positive during the screening – needs less care. “We operate on such a patient and send it home after two to three days, while someone who is admitted because of Covid-19 is often seriously ill, is on oxygen and stays longer in hospital.”
Still extra work
That does not mean that the hospitals do not have extra work on the fluke: they still have to be nursed in isolation. “I would rather have someone with a broken leg who is Covid-negative than who is Covid-positive,” says professor of intensive care medicine and intensivist Armand Girbes of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. “When I see a patient in the emergency room, I always want to see a Covid smear first. A healthy man with an annoying broken leg who then turns out to have Covid, we will of course operate for his leg. But we can’t put him next to an octogenarian who has broken a hip. This puts an extra burden on the hospital.”
It is also not the case that the patient who accidentally turns out to have Covid-19 cannot experience the consequences of that infection. “We know that people who have respiratory diseases, even if the symptoms are minor, have a somewhat higher risk of complications from the anesthesia.”
There were also ‘coincidental findings’ before the introduction of Omikron, but then the percentages were lower. Jaap van Dissel, chairman of the OMT, previously spoke of about 5 percent. The OMT expects that the number of coincidences will increase further due to a milder disease caused by Omikron, more immunity in society, vaccinations and recovery and at the same time many more infections. Last week, Minister Kuipers (Public Health, D66) estimated that about 1 in 75 Dutch people was infected. Since then, the number of positive tests has only increased.
Also read: 2021: a year of corona care in numbers