Dispatches from the Ukrainian Border
Dr. Juliusz Jakubaszko, former head of the Polish Society for Emergency Medicine, shares brief notes on how Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine is causing a humanitarian crisis in neighboring Poland.
This dispatch is a transcript of an audio message recorded by Dr. Jakubaszko. You can listen to the original audio dispatch below the transcript. Dr. Jakubaszko will continue to keep EPI updated on the crisis in Poland as time allows.
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February 27, 2022 – 6:09PM
We are still under pressure from the COVID epidemic in Poland. Three days ago a new 20,000 infections and 341 deaths were confirmed from COVID. We have more than 15,000 beds occupied by COVID patients and more than 1000 of them are on ventilator treatment. At the same time, only half of our population are fully vaccinated. In spite of this the Ministry of Health has pulled back all COVID restrictions starting the beginning of March. This will probably result in even more COVID patients coming to our already overloaded emergency departments.
This is coming at a time when we’re seeing reduced personnel. In 2021, we noticed 240 empty resident places for the emergency medicine specialty. That means we need to find a solution. Many of our older doctors who have retired are coming back to take shifts. I heard about a 70-year-old emergency physician who recently took eight night shifts in one month.
Now, we’re faced with new crisis, the fourth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The very first result is a flood of refugees coming across the border. Already more than 200,000 people from Ukraine have crossed our border. Dozens of volunteers and organizations are collecting goods for humanitarian aid and transporting them to the Polish border near Lublin. They are waiting there to offer help for free, from food to shelter to field medicine.
Polish border services are allowing Ukrainians to pass into Poland with minimal formalities, even without a passport. They are receiving special documentation, papers that give them access to Polish services like emergency medicine.
Three immediate challenges present themselves in the emergency department. One is the language barrier, which we’re working through. Another is the low COVID vaccination rate among Ukrainians. It’s lower than 30%. Third, many Ukrainians have poor health and live with chronic illnesses. Plus, they’re tired and stressed. Many of these refugees walked more than 20 kilometers through the night, some with children, to reach the border, due to overcrowded roads.
I fear what is coming. We can’t imagine what great a challenge the coming days and weeks will bring.
-Dr. Juliusz Jakubaszko
February 25, 2022 – 6:43PM
We find ourselves in a very new reality. Until now we’ve been concentrated almost exclusively on COVID-19. Thousands of our patients have been dying due to unfortunate political decisions. In Poland we’ve seen the highest mortality in Europe, which is totally unacceptable for a civilized country.
But now, we are in a very new reality. This war happening behind our border is bringing a lot of victims. We’re focused on trying to support our colleagues, but also our friends from Ukraine as they try to escape from the bombings. Right now, today and yesterday, military activities are getting closer and closer to the Polish border. So it means a great number of Ukrainians are trying to escape to Poland, mostly women and children, because all men who are able to fight are staying in Ukraine. They aren’t allowed to leave.
As of today, they’re saying that 35,000 Ukranians have already crossed the Polish border. That means that our Eastern region of Poland, around Lublin, is flooded by Ukranian refugees. Our Ministry of Health prepared 120 hospitals with thousands of hospital beds to be emptied for accepting these refugees. An emergency medicine train is already prepared to transport the wounded from the border to Polish trauma centers and Polish emergency departments.
As emergency departments, we aren’t prepared for such a flood of victims, but we are trying to make standards for acceptance of these patients.
Interestingly, many of our post-COVID beds are changing and being reconstructed as trauma beds. Some of our temporary COVID hospitals are being transformed into military hospitals for wounded patients arriving from Ukraine. All days and nights we are active trying to address these issues.
-Dr. Juliusz Jakubaszko
