Česky
This year, like last year, has been marked by a covid epidemic. This is the second year that the hospital has dealt with it, but that does not mean that it has not continued to develop. On the contrary, as you will have noticed, there is more hard work going on in and around the hospital.
Having managed to renovate the entire hospital building and improve its surroundings, including the access roads and the parking lot for patients, we have proceeded to further strategic expansion of the hospital by decision of the owner. The reason we are pleased is that the hospital has exhausted its space capacity and we are currently unable to expand our care capacity. However, this positive news is also a commitment to provide additional new beds, operating theatres and outpatient clinics to meet the needs of our patients in the future.
This year we have therefore started the construction of a new part of the hospital, which will be very modern and will fully satisfy the demand of patients for treatment in our facility in the future. With the new building and the addition of more staff, the facilities for employees will also be expanded, for example, the next stage of construction of staff flats will begin and the children's group where we look after the children of employees will be expanded.
In addition to our main plan to expand the hospital, we have also started other projects.
The activities of Hořovice Hospital have also expanded to the capital city. A new Diagnostic Centre has been opened in Nové Butovice in Prague, focusing on several specialties. Experts from our hospital are also involved in the project and it is used for outpatient treatment of patients who have been treated at the hospital in Hořovice. In the near future, a larger polyclinic is planned for Prague 13, which will also have a direct link to the Hořovice Hospital.
Other changes within the hospital premises include the relocation of the car park for employees, due to the aforementioned expansion of the building and the upcoming next stage of construction of apartments for employees.
As we are facing a significant expansion of the hospital, we are already looking for new employees, not only in the medical fields, but also in technical, administrative and other fields. I think there are great job opportunities opening up for capable and creative people in a great new hospital.
This year saw the completion of the purchase of the dilapidated Health Institute building on the hospital campus, which was demolished when operations ceased. Work is now underway on the foundations of the new building, which will act as the hospital's administrative centre. Prior to the demolition, we made use of these premises and built a vaccination centre there for a few months, where we administered approximately 55,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine during this year.
As I said in my introduction, the operation of the hospital has been significantly affected by the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic over the past two years, which has affected it in several areas.
I will start with perhaps the one least mentioned in the media but very important to me as the hospital director, which is the issue of medical staff. In the early months of the epidemic, my main concern was ensuring staff safety in the face of a significant shortage of protective equipment, and later, operational security in the face of increasing numbers of infected people among staff. In the later phases, the concern about real fatigue and exhaustion of the staff during the enormous workload during the epidemic dominated. Today, pride prevails in how the health workers have handled everything with grace and the belief that this abnormal situation will soon be over.
The main activity of the hospital is to provide health care for the population, which keeps it fully utilized in non-civil times, but we had to perform this function even when almost the entire hospital was filled with infectious patients. I think we have managed to combine at all times the maintenance of basic necessary general care with very good treatment of covid patients, from those who just needed a bed and oxygen to those who ended up in artificial sleep on pulmonary ventilation and dialysis.
Next spring we will surely face another wave of the epidemic. We do not yet fully know what impact the new Omicron mutation will have on the epidemic. In this context, I would like to take this opportunity to recommend that everyone be vaccinated with the third dose, which, according to the available information, significantly increases protection against this new variant of the virus. Hořovice Hospital will try to find premises for a vaccination centre and I hope that we will be able to reopen the centre in Hořovice for the needs of the population during the beginning of next year.
In conclusion, let me wish you all a happy and hopefully more peaceful New Year and I hope that you will only meet health professionals outside the hospital premises.
MUDr. Michal Průša, Director of Hořovice Hospital
