To the hospital after consultation? RAKUS emergency doctors are overwhelmed by the growing number of patients / Article

The number of patients has increased

Thursday, mid-day. This is the time when family doctor’s practices work and health centers and polyclinics also operate. However, the emergency medicine and patient reception clinic of the Riga Eastern Hospital is going hot.

The monitor shows the time of entry of each patient and some are admitted even in the same minute.

“At the moment there are 51 patients in the clinic, and in the last hour, you see, 15 patients came in, and they are all being treated and examined. But this is not a record, last week there were 70 people in two hours, which of course does not allow them all to be examined at the same time and to treat,” said the head of the RAKUS Emergency Medicine Clinic, Aleksejs Vishnakovs.

Therefore, the hospital is worried about whether it will be able to provide emergency care to all patients in time.

“In the three months of this year, the increase in the number of patients reaches 12%. With the Emergency Medical Service, 5% more have been brought, and the patients themselves have applied for 17% more,” Vishnakovs said.

The number of critically ill patients with polytraumas, heart attacks or strokes is stable. These patients have the highest priority. But to stabilize the condition of one such person, six or seven doctors are immediately involved. The rest of the patients are waiting, although the treatment also takes place in a queue. For example, drug systems are administered while also waiting in line.

“The number of examinations is very large. 70-80 examinations per day per sonography per doctor,” Vishnakov said.

Going to the hospital, not to the family doctor

With a higher flow of patients, the waiting time increases. The workload for doctors and nurses is also increasing. That’s why more employees have been recruited.

“One big part of the people are people who shouldn’t be here at all.

A large number of people do not go to family doctors at all. They come straight here,” RAKUS emergency doctor Sandra Seimane revealed.

Such patients take away the time of doctors for those who are really brought to the border of life and death.

And after the heavy duty, the doctors are also on the verge of burnout. “We are used to working in such abnormal conditions. We get along. Sometimes after a hard duty, we feel that we need to change jobs. The workload is very heavy,” admitted Seimane.

Invites to seek help in time

That is why doctors recommend not to wait until the last moment when the health condition worsens, but to consult a family doctor in time.

However, you can’t close the door to those who come by themselves, as doctors call those who come to the reception on their own. Because every day there are people who are hospitalized after an examination. “With exacerbations of chronic illnesses, with acute illnesses, with injuries,” said Leonid Shatoba, RAKUS emergency medicine physician’s assistant.

The doctors still cannot forget a young girl who also came by herself. Her complaints of persistent headaches for months turned out to be a giant tumor in her head during the examination.

Also, people with a stroke or heart attack come here themselves, who are afraid to call the emergency services, if it turns out that there is no reason for it.

“A large part comes when the complaints have already been there for 2-3 months, when they can’t take it anymore.

And we find serious, severe diseases that can be diagnosed in advance,” Vishnakov said.

However, the biggest burden is caused by those who have decided to quickly receive all the necessary examinations and consultations, because they have diagnosed themselves. “There have already been several of them today – I have this, this and that. I ask: why do you think so? And where did you get it? I read it on the Internet,” said Shatoba.

The doctors remind that the duty hours of family doctors and the consultation telephone number are also available directly on the Internet – on the website of the National Health Service. Anyone can get help without burdening those whose job it is to save life.