If Belgium's healthcare system is completely disrupted by the surge in Omicron cases, people who are hospitalised due to a coronavirus infection will no longer automatically be given priority.
This change in strategy was first reported by De Morgen on Tuesday morning, after viewing the latest FPS Public Health hospital emergency plan which was drawn up by the specialised Hospital & Transport Surge Capacity Committee (HTSC), and was officially confirmed to The Brussels Times after it was finalised in the afternoon.
As the rapid increase in new Covid-19 cases continues, hospitalisations are also rising. On Monday, almost 2,000 patients were in Belgian hospitals with this number expected to rise. On the same day, a record 132,000 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus in the United States, where the Omicron variant became dominant on 20 December.
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Until now, the number of hospital beds available for Covid-19 patients was determined by the epidemiological phase. Currently, Belgium is in phase 1B, which means that 50% of the intensive care capacity is dedicated to such patients.
This is to guarantee a buffer in case the number of Covid-19 patients skyrockets. But when higher phases are introduced, non-urgent care must be postponed.
Emergency phase 3
However, in anticipation of a worst-case scenario – emergency phase 3 – the consensus is that coronavirus care will no longer take priority over other care.
In phase 3, hospitals should "stop allocating beds specifically for Covid-19 and suspend non-urgent, elective care," and the principle of reserving beds for Covid-19 is also stopped, the HTSC wrote in a letter sent to all hospitals in Belgium.
"Given the large influx of Covid-19 pathology, the availability of all (both Covid and non-Covid) critical care must be ensured," the committee added. "In practice, these priorities (regardless of whether or not they involve Covid pathology) will be determined on the basis of medical triage."
Not keeping beds free unnecessarily
The scaling up to phase 3 will only take place after all flanking measures in the previous phases have been exhausted and patients can no longer be transferred to other hospitals. "An upscaling to phase 3 should be postponed as long as possible."
Committee Chair Marcel Van der Auwera stated that in an emergency situation, the goal is to help as many people as possible. The proposed new plan seeks to prevent beds from being kept free "unnecessarily." A list of priority patients will be drawn up, and it is possible only people with urgent conditions will be hospitalised.
Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke told VRT that does not believe the emergency plan will be needed soon, but added that it is good that hospitals can be prepared now.
