Bulgaria’s Health Minister issues orders to hospitals over rising Covid-19 cases
Against a background of the worsening incidence of Covid-19 in Bulgaria and reports received by the Ministry of Health about medical facilities refusing to hospitalise patients with suspected coronavirus infection because of a lack of “Covid-19 wards”, Health Minister Assena Serbezova has issued orders to the country’s regional health inspectorates, the ministry said on July 8.
Serbezova ordered them, as a matter of urgency, to inform all medical facilities and emergency medical care centres that the hospitals are obliged to maintain readiness for admission and treatment of patients with primary or accompanying coronavirus infection, the ministry said.
At the medical institutions, places in which to treat patients in conditions of isolation must be designated.
The treatment of patients with Covid-19 should be carried out within the existing structures in accordance with the clinical manifestations of the patient, the statement said.
Serbezova said that the so-called “Covid wards” are spatially secured places in medical facilities where patients are treated in conditions of isolation, and not wards for only one medical speciality.
A multidisciplinary approach must be applied, since the clinical course of the coronavirus infection can be both very mild and with the development of a severe clinical picture – pneumonia, exacerbation of existing chronic diseases or the development of critical, life-threatening complications affecting various organs and systems in the human body.
Serbezova said that given the increasing number of cases of Covid-19 in Bulgaria, each medical facility must introduce strict controls to prevent the occurrence of infections, and the staff must observe standard precautions, such as hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment.
She said that attention should also be paid to the access of visitors and other people to the the hospital, by introducing requirements regarding the length of their stay, wearing a protective face mask, and other measures, the ministry said.
(Archive photo of Serbezova: Health Ministry)
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