A cluster of new coronaviruses occurred, and the director of a hospital in Kushiro City, which had converged this month, responded to NHK's interview.

We have clarified the fact that when a cluster occurs at a local medical institution where manpower and supplies are scarce, it directly leads to a situation where it is difficult to provide ordinary medical care.

Kushiro Kyoritsu Hospital in Kushiro City is a medium-sized hospital with 135 beds, and a cluster occurred last month, infecting a total of 12 nurses and patients.



In an interview with NHK, Toshinori Kurokawa, the director of this hospital, talked about the situation in the hospital from the occurrence of the cluster to the convergence on the 19th of this month.



According to it, the beginning was to accept an elderly person infected with the new corona.



The nurse who assisted him was infected and was asymptomatic, so it spread all at once.



The number of infected nurses reached nine, and the labor shortage occurred, and the staff of other clinical departments also devoted themselves to dealing with the new corona, forcing them to stop outpatient clinics and surgery for about a month. ..



What made the site even more difficult was dealing with about 100 patients with illnesses other than the new Corona who were admitted to this hospital.



About half of them, more than 50 people, were said to be at risk of infection and could not be discharged or transferred.



In the hospital, in order to prevent the spread of infection anymore, nurses wear high-performance masks, face guards, medical gowns, etc. called "N95" not only for those infected with the new corona but also for general inpatients. I decided to put it on.



Gloves and gowns had to be changed for each patient, and the burden on the site was extremely heavy.



Dr. Kurokawa said, "Medical institutions in local cities do not have enough doctors and nurses, and if infected people appear in the hospital, it will be difficult to continue regular medical care. In that case, regional medical care may become tight in a blink of an eye. There is. "

"N95 mask" can suppress new occurrence

At Kushiro Kyoritsu Hospital, doctors and nurses wear surgical masks, face shields, medical gowns, caps, gloves, etc. according to the guidelines set by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Japanese Society for Infection Control and Prevention for people infected with the new coronavirus. I was responding.



However, it was not possible to prevent the infection because the distance between the faces became closer when assisting an elderly infected person.



Therefore, based on the guidance of the health center, we replaced it with a higher-performance mask called "N95", which was able to suppress the outbreak of new infected people.



However, the stockpile of N95 masks was small and it soon ran out, so I was rushed to get it from the country.



According to the current guidelines, wearing an N95 mask is a case where a large amount of flying occurs, such as inhaling a tan or intubating the trachea.



However, Dr. Kurokawa points out that wearing an N95 mask is more effective in protecting the infection even when the distance to the infected person is getting closer, such as assistance.



Dr. Kurokawa said, "Some elderly patients are deaf or make loud voices, and it seems that micro-flying is floating around the patient, and it is not possible to prevent it with a surgical mask. I'm talking.

Strict compatibility between "Corona Ward" and "General Ward"

The cluster also highlighted the challenges of accepting people infected with the new coronavirus at hospitals other than "designated medical institutions."



Kushiro Kyoritsu Hospital in Kushiro City is not a designated medical institution for infectious diseases, but since the acceptance system of other hospitals in Kushiro City was tight, we cooperated in accepting it since October.



At that time, a part of the general ward was divided into a ward dedicated to the new corona, but the building was not designed to be isolated in the first place, and due to lack of manpower, nurses and others initially worked on the general ward and the new corona ward. It contributed to the spread of the infection in the hospital.



For this reason, after the cluster occurred, patients in the general ward on the same floor as the dedicated ward of the new corona also decided to isolate the entire floor because it may be infected, and restricted the traffic of people.



Dr. Toshinori Kurokawa said, "It is a troublesome virus that spreads and clusters in the hospital in a blink of an eye. I experienced that it cannot be prevented by normal infection countermeasures, so the infection does not spread again while sharing it with each medical institution. I want to prepare for it. "