EUROPE (Washington Insider Magazine) – With the rapid spread of the Omicron variant Europe’s healthcare systems are being heavily taxed. Many key workers have fallen ill or are self-isolating, and experts are predicting that the peak of infections has yet to arrive.
Early studies showed a lower risk of severe disease and hospitalization when compared to earlier variants, but still healthcare networks across many European countries have found themselves in increasingly desperate situations.
Private healthcare companies in Britain have been placed on high alert to deliver treatments including cancer surgery in case hospitalizations or staff absences reach unsustainable levels. Britain also began deploying military personnel to support the hospitals.
The EU isn’t the only place that Omicron is currently running rampant. Even the United States has had to postpone elective surgeries in order to free up staff and beds for potential hospitalizations.
Spain’s main healthcare network has become so strained that authorities in the region of Aragon have authorized the reincorporation of retired medical workers and nurses. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez recently said that it may be time to use new parameters to track the pandemic. Some ideas include using methods similar to those used to track the common flu.
Nurses and other front line workers in Spain are being hit the hardest with more than 30% of hospital staff having COVID related leave in the second half of december. The southern region registered nearly 1,000 workers infected with COVID in the last weeks of 2021. A survey done at eight hospitals in The Netherlands showed that infection rates rose rapidly amongst the staff.
At Amsterdam’s University Medical Center the positive test results rose from 5% a week ago to 25%. Dutch hospitals are starting to reconsider their quarantine rules so that infected staff that do not have any symptoms can return to work. While in Italy more than 12,800 workers have already been infected which is made worse by the suspensions of all doctors, nurses, and administrative staff that are not vaccinated.
Last ditch efforts are being made to plug gaps in health care services. Italian health agencies are deferring and even freezing staff holidays as well as deferring any surgeries not classified as urgent. In Britain, hospitalizations have reached their highest since February of 2021 and it is expected to only get higher. It is looking like a very rocky road ahead for the National Health Services in Britain.
It is estimated that around 80,000 medical staff and personnel were absent from work every day in the week of January 2nd which is a 13% rise from the week before. It is believed that nearly 44% of those absences were due to coronavirus related causes.
A former WHO senior official said that Spain failed to take sufficient measures to reinforce vital services and the pressure felt will only continue to rise. It is believed that there will not be a more infectious variant that is also deadlier than Omicron and there is a lot of optimism that this current wave might just signal the end to the coronavirus pandemic.
