The Covida ward in Ljungby, with room for 10 patients, opened on December 18 last year, when the pressure on pandemic care was at its highest in Kronoberg.
But since yesterday, Thursday, ward 5 has returned to being an orthopedic ward again.
Covid patients who need hospital care will from now on end up in the two covid wards that remain at the central hospital in Växjö.
Niklas Silvert is acting.
Deputy Hospital Manager in Ljungby.
- For us, this means that we get more space for inpatient operations, and the patients who require inpatient care.
We can also gradually start to increase the number of operations that require inpatient care.
We have built a long queue and we have to graze it as soon as we can, says Niklas Silvert, hospital manager in Ljungby.
4000 in line for surgery
Right now, about 4,000 patients in Kronoberg are in line to have an operation.
It is estimated that about 1000-1500 of them are such operations that have been postponed due to the pandemic, the so-called health care debt.
So far, priority has been given to cancer operations and emergency operations, but the fact that the local pediatric ward can now open up means that more people can start prioritizing.
- We have a special group that looks at how we can prioritize and which ones.
But we can not drive fully because we still have a lot of inpatient, which means a restriction on surgery.
A rebuild of the sterile center that has been going on for a year also means that we have limited access to operating theaters, says Niklas Silvert.
If the situation were to change and more people needed covid care, there is a complete plan to reopen the covid department in Ljungby.
At most, before New Year, there were five covid departments in the Kronoberg region.