Friday, August 18, 2023 feels like a milestone. For the first time there are no corona patients in intensive care since the corona virus appeared in Tilburg in February 2020. Joost Boons from Loon op Zand became patient zero on February 27. After this first patient, nursing wards and ICs would quickly fill up. An overview of how ICs could barely handle the flow of corona patients.
To be clear: corona has not disappeared. There are now no corona patients in the ICU, but the occupancy by corona patients increased in the nursing wards. Probably due to the emergence of a new variant of the virus. At the beginning of this month, there were about 40 corona patients in the nursing wards, now there are more than 70.
Despite this flare-up of corona, there is now no corona patient in any of the more than 900 IC beds. “The virus is still circulating, but almost everyone has built up resistance through vaccination or previous infection,” the GGD reports. “Most people don’t get seriously ill anymore.”
First wave: early 2020
About two months after the first patient was discovered in the Netherlands, the occupation of the intensive care unit reached a peak. In the first wave in April 2020, more than 1400 corona patients were in intensive care. To accommodate all those patients, extra beds and staff had to be made available quickly. This was at the expense of regular care.
In Brabant, where the pressure on the ICU was highest, patients had to be taken to hospitals far outside the province and even abroad.
It was clear that care was squeaking and creaking on all sides due to corona. In the spring of 2020, charitable initiatives sprang up like mushrooms. Staff received drawings, treats and applause. Solidarity reigned.
Second wave: end of 2020
In the following months, towards the end of 2020, the protest against the corona measures became louder and healthcare staff increasingly had to deal with misunderstanding and aggression. Only a single visitor per patient was not simply accepted.
Hospital admissions rose again during the second corona wave in October. Hundreds of people ended up in IC, but the pressure was less than in April. The healthcare staff, meanwhile, became overtired.
Third wave: early 2021
End of April 2021 threatened, during the third corona wave in Breda, code black for the Amphia hospital. This would mean that a choice had to be made as to which patient received help and which did not. This situation was only just avoided.
A month earlier, the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven and the Bernhoven Hospital in Uden placed tents to examine incoming patients before entering and to separate them from the most vulnerable patients.
After this third wave, ICs have never burst at the seams as they did in 2020 and 2021. Still, the pressure on healthcare remained enormous due to postponed treatments and a staff shortage. There was already a shortage, but due to the war of exhaustion during corona, many aid workers said goodbye to the profession.
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