The Tallinn ambulance service may have to cut back on service quality if the state makes the move to escalate the current health care emergency status to its highest level, the authority s director says. The service had already been facing melt-down a week ago, with ambulances having to travel as far afield from the capital as Pärnu.
The Tallinn ambulance service s chief doctor, Raul Adlas, told daily Postimees that the: Highest emergency level, i.e. the third, applies in situations where the number of patients is rising uncontrollably. In such case, reducing quality to prioritize patients whose life is endangered is permissible, whereas many types of planned surgery must be put off.
Shortages of ambulance crews will be managed both by reducing teams to two per vehicle, from three, while Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) medics may also be drafted in to plug gaps, ETV news show Aktuaalne kaamera (AK) reported Tuesday night.
The issue is particularly pressing in Tallinn, which has been virtually at breaking point since before last weekend and has seen both lines of ambulances waiting at hospitals to drop off patients, and patients being taken to hospitals as far afield as Pärnu, about 100 km from Tallinn.
The new measure came into effect Tuesday, AK reported; less experienced staff at earlier stages in their training, and also medical students, will also be permitted to work