An ambulance with a patient suffering from Covid-19 left the hospital from Ústí nad Orlicí in eastern Bohemia this morning. This patient is going to the hospital in Raciborz. This is the first transport in the Czech Republic of a patient during a pandemic to a hospital abroad.
The trip is expected to take 2-2.5 hours. The head of the ambulance service in the Pardubice region of the country (province) Igor Paar said that the transport of the patient was carried out in a standard ambulance used for patients with infectious disease. The patient is connected to the artificial respiration apparatus.
The hospital had planned to transport her by helicopter on Monday but ultimately opted for an ambulance. The route from Ústí nad Orlicí leads to the border crossing in Bogumín, from where it is about 30 kilometres to the hospital in Poland.
Paar, who is not only an emergency room doctor but also works in intensive care units, told the Czech News Agency (CTK) that he hopes to understand each other with Polish doctors.
‘The words are so similar that we should be able to understand each other,’ he said.
The patient’s transport from a hospital in the Pardubice province is made possible by the Czech Republic’s activation of the EU’s Early Warning and Response System (ERWS), which allows the use of international assistance.