In the news portal tv3.lt show “33min. with Artūrs Anužius” was visited by the chairwoman of the board of the Lithuanian medical movement, Auristida Gerliakienė.
A doctor who works at the National Cancer Institute claims that she is a long-time reservist who will have to stay in the country and treat people when the war starts.
“Those who work in the public sector, they are all reservists, I am a reservist, but I was never invited to any training, nor did I receive any information about what I should do in case of war”, Auristida Gerliakienė wondered when talking about the preparation of doctors for war .
The injured in Vilnius would not be rescued by doctors, but by non-governmental organizations
However, the doctor is surprised not only by the casual approach to the preparation of doctors for war, but also by the casual approach of our health policy leaders to the preparation for emergency situations, because serious preparation would only begin once they have already started.
“Only when an emergency situation occurs, the emergency management center of the institution must be called, when thinking about how to assess the possibility of mobilizing human resources. In my understanding, this is absurd due to the fact that, if an emergency situation occurs, it will be necessary to know very clearly who has to do what specifically, and not to think about where we can get people from or evacuate the sick if there are about 100 of them in bed. Who will evacuate them, not the few nurses who work in that hospital”, thought Auristida Gerliakienė.
The chairman of the board of the medical movement is no less confused by the Vilnius municipality, which appears to have signed an agreement with the non-governmental organizations the Rifle Association and the Red Cross for first aid.
“It is said that the Vilnius municipality has signed an agreement with non-governmental organizations that should provide first aid to the victims, so I am surprised by this attitude, because I do not see medics here, or indeed those non-governmental organizations, I am specifically talking about the Riflemen and the Red Cross, do they have so many resources that they could help?”, asks Auristida Gerliakienė.
The doctor says that it is hard for her to understand how non-governmental organizations would provide first aid to the injured, rather than doctors.
“I have no idea how many human resources the Red Cross organization has, whether all people are really trained, because, according to the writing, non-governmental organizations, according to the plan of Vilnius municipality, should provide first aid to victims. This attitude disturbs me, because I understand that shooters should perform other functions, they are expected to defend the state, but the Vilnius municipality expects that shooters will attack to provide first aid”, wonders Auristida Gerliakienė.
It is not clear where patients would be operated on in Vilnius
Not only do Lithuanian doctors lack training and understanding of how to act when a war breaks out, but they also do not know whether there would be enough wards and operating theaters if tens or hundreds of wounded suddenly poured into the hospitals.
“We cannot name, we have no precedent, whether it is enough or not enough, but those that are, are they suitable?” If the cancer institute has, for example, operating rooms on the 9th floor, it is clear that they will not be on the 9th floor in case of bombing, they must be moved to a completely different space, because it is not prepared in case of radiation contamination, because there must be some insulation with lead in the wards, so enormous funds that should be allocated for this, but no one allocates it”, – tv3.lt in the program “33min. with Artūrs Anužius” asserts Auristida Gerliakienė.
There will be terrible chaos, the system will not be able to cope
The chairwoman of the board of the medical movement complains that our health policy leaders still do not find time to prepare the health system for war or an emergency.
“There is no plan, except for the fact that there are emergency management plans, which have nothing to do with the real situation, because we do not know how many doctors working in the treatment facility could help solve the problems that have arisen. I don’t see that we learned much from Covid, because everything there was chaotic and stretched the situation thanks to the sacrifice of the doctors, so apparently now it is expected that the same will happen”, Auristida Gerliakienė complains.
And doctors who raise uncomfortable questions only receive promises from the management.
“A year ago, I spoke in an interview and they assured me that all the plans are made, everything is happening and only I don’t know, but a year has passed since that interview and I see that just as nothing happened, it is not happening. There is such a formal approval of the plans, as if the responsibility is placed on the head of the treatment facility, that he has to take care of human resources, resources, means and medications, but as far as I know, no additional funding has been allocated for this”, says Auristida Gerliakienė.
The leader of the medical movement says that it is not enough, the authorities are still trying to hide the real situation.
“There was a report organized by LRT, where the LSMU clinics together with the soldiers organized training and everyone in Lithuania was told that everything is going on, that the training is taking place, but it is not happening until now. – You mean that the authorities reacted and tried to show that everything is fine and tried to calm us down or lie to us? – I think so. – And what is the purpose? – So as not to cause panic among the population, because you know, when they started talking about the threat of war, what happened – consumption decreased, now there is a huge deficit – 1.5 billion”, said Auristida Gerliakienė.
The chairwoman of the medical movement is convinced that our system would simply not be able to withstand the outbreak of war, because there is practically no preparation for war.
“I remember very well the film about the events of January, where Professor Vitkus gave an interview about the nightmare he experienced when he started transporting the wounded from the Television Tower and how he didn’t know what to do, there was nowhere to put them, they had to put the corpses under the stairs and what a shock the medics experienced, but there were few people then, now the situation will be completely different”, said Auristida Gerliakienė.
The head of the medical movement in the tv3.lt news program “33min. with Artūrs Anužiu” talked not only about the preparation of hospitals, but also about the doctors themselves and the reserves accumulated by health institutions, which are shrouded in secrecy. In addition, it was also discussed how the threat of war affects our doctors.
More about geopolitics and relations with neighbors, wars and Western countries have been discussed more than once in “33min. with Artūrs Anužius” shows. National defense and preparation for a possible Russian attack were discussed with Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas and defense experts Gintars Ažubalis and Vaidotas Malinionis. Former army commander Jonas Vytautas Žukas talked about the shortcomings and priorities of the Lithuanian army on the show. The military historian Robertas Petrauskas revealed more about the coming wars and the fall of the Western powers. In addition, economics professor Raimondas Kuodis told how Lithuania manages to maintain its statehood and healthy institutions.
“33 min. with Artūras Anužius” watch every Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the news portal tv3.lt and on the TV3 Play platform. The show is on Thursdays at 7 p.m. you can find it on TV3’s YouTube channel.
Tags: leader medical movement preparation hospitals war terrible chaos system cope
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