Hospital authorities across Finland are preparing for a surge in demand for intensive care units against the backdrop of a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
During the peak of the coronavirus epidemic last spring, hospitals prepared for a worst-case scenario that did not eventually come to pass.
However according to medical chief of staff at the intensive care unit at the Jorvi hospital in the Helsinki University Hospital District Tero Varpula, the precautions taken during the spring were not an overreaction. At the time, a maximum of 84 patients were receiving treatment for coronavirus infections simultaneously at hospitals in Helsinki.
Since then, hospital officials have adopted a different approach to ensuring intensive care capacity.
"We have progressive plans so that we can scale up operations. The principle is that we are so well in control of the situation that the number of places and capacity will meet the changing need. That way we will not reduce capacity in the rest of the healthcare system as much as we did last spring, but we will quickly add beds as needed," Varpula explained.
Capacity could reach 100 beds
Health officials said that all of Finland’s university and central hospitals are prepared to provide intensive care for Covid-19 patients, but capacity varies considerably from place to place.
Central hospitals have on average six to eight intensive care beds, while university hospitals generally have far greater capacity.
HUS has a total of 70 to 80 intensive care berths, while other university hospitals may have around 20.
However for very small hospitals as few as five intensive care patients can tie up all of their intensive care resources. Intensive care is usually demanding and coronavirus patients often need extended treatment, sometimes for weeks.
In spite of the patchwork situation, Matti Reinikainen, Kuopio University Hospital's head of anaesthesiology and intensive care, said the ICU situation across Finland is currently stable and that the country is overall better prepared for critically ill care patients than last spring.
Moreover, there were few patients in critical condition during summer and early autumn. There are signs, however, that the need for intensive care treatment will gradually increase as the number of infections rises.
"It is possible to care for about 100 patients in intensive care without disrupting other hospital operations -- if patients are evenly distributed. On the other hand, if there is a significant growth in patient numbers, then we will be in the same situation as last spring. In other words, other surgical activities will have to be scaled back," Reinikainen noted.
