ZAGREB, 8 Nov, 2021 - As COVID hospitalisation numbers are increasing, Zagreb hospitals are expanding their COVID capacities while reducing services that are not essential.

The director of the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in Zagreb, Davor Vagić, told Hina that the hospital is expanding its COVID ward by an extra 12 beds plus eight more intensive care units.

There are currently 60 COVID patients at the hospital and together with the emergency ward, there will be about 100 beds available for patients.

He added that non-essential treatment would be reduced by 25%.

Vagić said that about 550 employees at the hospital had received a third dose of vaccine and immunisation would continue at the the same pace.

The KBC Hospital in Zagreb will also increase its COVID capacities from 113 to 129 and currently there are 108 COVID patients at that university hospital, 17 of whom are on ventilators, the hospital's assistant director Milivoj Novak said.

The Dubrava hospital currently has 135 hospitalised COVID patients and 21 are in ICU and they are all on ventilators.

A Health Ministry task force has recommended that all hospitals expand their COVID capacities.

The Zagreb-based Sveti Duh hospital is currently caring for about 30 COVID patients.

The hospital's head, Mladen Bušić, told Hina that elective surgeries had been reduced to some extent due to acute treatment of COVID-19.

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August the 6th, 2021 - After a long, hard 288 day slog of being used solely as a covid hospital, the Zagreb KB Dubrava emergency room is now open for all patients once again, with just four covid patients with severe clinical pictures currently being treated there at the time of writing.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, as of yesterday, after almost one entire year of caring for only covid patients with severe clinical pictures, the KB Dubrava emergency room has been reopened for all patients in the Eastern part of the City of Zagreb and the surrounding areas. The move marks a significant point in Croatia's own battle with the pandemic.

The currently much more favourable epidemiological situation across the Republic of Croatia and in Zagreb itself, and the reduction in the number of covid patients in hospital, enabled the KB Dubrava emergency room to finally open its doors and offer its medical services to all other patients in the Eastern part of the Croatian capital and beyond.

There are about 350 thousand such patients, and on average about 56 thousand examinations, 11 thousand emergency hospitalisations and more than three thousand emergency surgeries are performed in KB Dubrava.

"Everything is absolutely ready for the reception of patients with other issues. The enrollment of patients is at the counter where the administrative part is resolved, after that the patient goes to the triage itself where the category of urgency of the patient's admission is determined,'' said KB Dubrava's Sanja Kristo in conversation with RTL.

As stated, there are currently only four covid patients being treated for severe issues due to coronavirus infection at KB Dubrava (at the time of writing this article), and the hospital hopes that as autumn approaches, things won't take a turn for the worse again and turn the hospital back into a covid hospital housing hundreds of extremely unwell patients.

"KBC Zagreb, our largest institution, has formed its own covid department, they have their own intensive care unit, so I believe that a calmer autumn awaits us with more regular work," said the hospital's director Ivica Luksic. He added that he hopes there will be no need to go through what they went through again last year.

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December 31, 2020 – Health Minister Vili Beroš commented on the record blood donations collected in Petrova Hospital in Zagreb yesterday and coronavirus vaccine doses sent to the quake-affected area.

As N1 reports, in front of the Dubrava Hospital, where some COVID positive patients arrived from the earthquake-affected area, Health Minister Vili Beroš commented on patients' situation after the earthquake.

Record blood doses after 1995

"This morning, I received information from the Croatian Institute for Transfusion Medicine that yesterday, a record number of blood doses was collected in Zagreb's Petrova Hospital, over 750 doses. The last time we had a similar turnout was August 5, 1995, the beginning of the Storm war operation. This shows the consciousness of the Croatian people," said Beroš.

"From a health point of view, this is a challenge. We want to provide health care to everyone. Given that most health facilities have been severely damaged, I believe we will respond adequately. As much as 90 percent of the Sisak hospital is out of order, so we have to adjust the health system and provide health care to the entire surrounding area," said Beroš.

He pointed out that many health centers are out of order. He also revealed that the Health Ministry sends about a thousand doses of vaccine to the affected area.

'Virus is still here'

"On Saturday, a team of epidemiologists from the Croatian Institute for Public Health will vaccinate all people who are in collective accommodation, emergency workers, and emergency services who are in the area and who will be there for three weeks, including all members of civil protection. Plans exist to adapt to the situation. Epidemiologists will estimate the situation and see how many vaccines are still needed. We are sending more than 1000 doses," said Beroš.

The Minister pointed out that there are enough reserves of protective equipment. He also said that the problem of drug delivery would be solved. Rapid antigen tests are being conducted among nursing home users in the area to find out if there are infections in collective accommodation.

"After the earthquake, Minister Aladrović contacted me. They enabled the accommodation for nursing home users from Petrinja in the Popovača Hospital and other places. There are positive cases among the users, so we are looking for accommodation for them with the county authorities. We still have to stick to measures, masks, distances, disinfection. The virus is still there. These circumstances favor its spread," said Beroš.

The Minister stressed that all health professionals with COVID patients must receive the promised money for the reward.

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ZAGREB, Dec 27, 2020 - A physician and a nurse working in the intensive care unit of Zagreb's Dubrava hospital, converted into the central hospital treating COVID-19 patients in Croatia, got vaccinated against the disease on Sunday.

The vaccination was attended by Health Minister Vili Beros.

Thirty-five employees of the hospital will get immunised today and a total of 200 doctors and nurses working at the hospital will be vaccinated in the next two days.

Acting hospital director Ivica Luksic said that today was a big day, encouraging in many ways.

"The KB Dubrava hospital and all its employees have been on the front line of the battle against the pandemic from the very first day and for all of us this is a new beginning in the treatment of this disease," he said.

Minister: We will reward KB Dubrava for selfless work done

Minister Beros underlined the role of the KB Dubrava hospital, which has been the most important centre in the country for the treatment of COVID-19 patients since March.

"More than 450 people are treated and 69 receive respiratory support on a daily basis at Dubrava. I learned this morning that 360,000 litres of liquid oxygen is spent an hour in the treatment of our patients. We could not have created such conditions in any other Zagreb hospital," Beros said, adding that if possible, the government would compensate the hospital and all its employees for their selfless work.

"We will consider expansion to include new, research elements and new services. Once this epidemic is over, that will be a sign of gratefulness to all Dubrava hospital employees," said the minister.

Beros said the number of infections in the past two days was small but that fewer tests were performed, noting that it was encouraging that the number of new infections had been declining in the past two weeks.

He said that the number of new hospital admissions today was higher than on Saturday but that there were fewer patients on ventilators than yesterday.

"The number of fatalities is the result of developments in the last 2-3 weeks. That number is expected to start going down in a week and a half because the mortality rate will start following the trend in the number of new infections," said the minister.

ZAGREB, November 7, 2020 - A section of the second floor of Zagreb's Dubrava Clinical Hospital where no patients are accommodated was left without electricity for about an hour and a half of Saturday after the switch cabinet was believed to have been damaged on purpose, the hospital's acting director Ivica Luksic said, adding that the police have been informed.

"This is no accident, because smashing the cabinet door and heavily damaging the massive electric switch requires intent, time and some heavy-duty tools. In short, this can be considered intentional damage, and I hope the police will establish the facts and identify those responsible," Luksic said in a statement.

Luksic said that security had been stepped up following a similar power outage at the hospital on November 1. He said he had informed Health Minister Vili Beros and the chairman of the hospital's governing board and state secretary at the Health Ministry, Silvio Basic, of the latest incident.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of August, 2020, the coronavirus hospital has now been reopened at Zagreb's Dubrava Hospital, and Ivica Luksic, the coordinator of hospital treatment for infected patients, stated when in conversation with N1 that the first patient had already arrived.

"We had a young man who has a chronic disease and at the same time is coronavirus positive, he's located in our respiratory centre," said Luksic, adding that the patient's condition is good.

He pointed out that they are now entering autumn much securely and calmly, precisely because of the experience they have gained since the beginning of the pandemic back in spring. “Of course, instruments, respirators, capacities, all of that is important, but so is the experience and knowledge we have in the treatment of the infected and the organisation we’ve come to learn over time, so, no matter how the numbers grow, we’re ready and our citizens can be calm,'' the coordinator of Dubrava Hospital's recently opened coronavirus hospital said.

He added that 40 respirators and 80 beds are ready and waiting for patients with a more difficult clinical picture, and that the capacities can be increased if necessary. "As long as pandemic lasts, there will be more and more positive and infected people, and we must take care of those patients who have other chronic diseases, and at the same time are coronavirus positive," Luksic said.

With a good reorganisation of the system, part of the services will work in two shifts and the waiting list has even decreased in some cases, said Luksic, adding that things can be done better and that this time should be used to reorganise the system.

People's fear when it comes to regular visits to their doctor is justified, Luksic points out, adding that this must be taken into account in any reorganisation and modification process. ''At first, we didn’t know which way to go either, but luckily those issues didn’t last long and patients went to see their doctors and were examined at other hospitals. Today when we're significantly more prepared, we're well organised, and all chronic patients come, they can still go to their doctor and get the care they need,'' Luksic said.

The key thing in the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic is to protect people and medical staff, which is something the expert team of the Ministry of Health and the National Civil Protection Headquarters are thinking about on a daily basis, and all strategies and scenarios are being planned and solutions are being given, says Luksic.

"The key is that nothing is possible without people, and the thing we need to make sure we do is defend, in addition retirement homes, which house the most vulnerable population - the health system. You can be organised enough, but if there are not enough people, any system gets into trouble,'' Luksic said.

When asked whether he expects a larger increase in the number of infected people with the opening of kindergartens and schools, Dubrava Hospital's coronavirus hospital coordinator said that greater mobility of people is expected to increase the number of infected.

"Maybe children will not be the biggest carriers, but colleges and people who normally move around and socialise more will be, and we're entering the winter part of the year, so we expect further growth. That's why it's important to be responsible and stick to the recommended measures. The measures of social distance and wearing a mask aren't very demanding, and in this situation they're actually the most important to us,'' he said.

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