Now that carnival can be fully hosted again, the emergency room staff are also working overtime. It is mainly minor suffering that passes by, such as falls because people have looked too deeply into the glass, but alcohol poisoning is also common.
In the Jeroen Bosch hospital in Den Bosch, 57 carnival celebrants have so far entered the emergency department. Last year there were 50 over the entire carnival period. Most of the accidents that pass by are wounds that need stitches, bruises and broken bones due to drunken falls.
“Saturday evening was the busiest,” says spokesperson Saskia Byvanck. “At that time there were also a few people who had drunk a lot. There were also five people who had used alcohol in combination with drugs, but they did not need to be admitted.”
“At the busiest moment, there were sixty people in the waiting room.”
It was remarkably busy at the Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital in Tilburg on Monday. Where on a normal day 100 to 120 patients end up in the emergency room, there were 140 on Monday. “At the busiest moment, there were sixty people in the waiting room,” says Wim Pleunis. “So we had to work hard and that meant for some colleagues that they had to work longer shifts.”
“We had deployed extra staff.”
Thirty carnival celebrants arrived at the emergency room at the Bravis in Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom in recent days. According to spokesman Willem van Bodegom, that number is comparable to the other carnival years before corona time. No figures have been kept at the Amphia Hospital in Breda, but according to spokesman Mark van Hassel, last weekend was busy. “We had deployed extra staff and that was really necessary.”