Doctor Rasim Skomorac, the CEO of the Zenica Cantonal Hospital, told N1’s Slavisa Starcevic that the situation in this canton is dramatic, the hospital has beds - but no staff to treat patients, noting that a full lockdown is the only effective measure until Bosnia purchases vaccines.
“I must say – to put it mildly, the situation is dramatic. We have filled the capacities, it works on an hourly system, one patient is discharged, the other is admitted. There may be a situation where we have to return the patient. All our capacities have reached capacity,” said Skomorac.
According to him, the hospital does not have a problem with the number of beds, but with the number of staff – they are understaffed to treat all the patients admitted to the hospital.
Currently, the hospital has 139 patients with only a handful of beds remaining, but the situation changes every hour.
“People aren’t used to adhering to measures. When we had strict measures it gave results. These measures are not respected. We keep repeating – we are becoming like parrots and ominous birds warning that the situation will only get worse, and that's what happened,” said Skomorac.
When asked of a full lockdown would be the only solution to the current surge in the number of cases, doctor Skomorac said yes.
“Obviously this is the only real measure, a lockdown that lasts fourteen days or a month. However – the question is how long can it last. As a health worker, I will support that, but health care also lives from the others. If there are economic consequences – it can affect health care. This discipline is crucial. We are in the worst phase of the pandemic, we have never been in a situation this difficult. Nobody can do it alone, we are trying to make it at the local level” he told N1.
“Our cantons are not separated by walls, 15,000 people from the Zenica-Doboj canton work in the Sarajevo Canton. The virus is not a cow that one can stop easily. All measures must cover a significant area, the Federation (FBiH) entity at least, preferably the state, or the entire region,” he said.
Skomorac hopes and wants to believe that everyone is working with the best intentions to procure vaccines for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the latest date from the country, 1,606 new coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday along with 53 fatalities.
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