Premises at the district hospital partially usable again
Following the fire in the old building last Thursday, the patient rooms housed there, the medical care centre with the paediatric practice and the premises used by the on-call medical service of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians were initially still closed. They were released at the beginning of the week, meaning that the clean-up and cleaning work is currently being assessed. Before they go back into operation, they will all undergo another safety inspection.
3rd floor back in full use
The third floor, which houses the clinic's administration, was the least affected by the fire, has already been restored and is back in full use. The traces of smoke have been removed and the administration wing has been inspected and cleared by a specialised company. Operations have already resumed as before the fire. All employees have been able to move back into their offices.
The patient rooms in three wards in the old building are also affected by the fire and smoke. Two of these are currently being inspected by a 40-strong team from a refurbishment company. However, due to the complex damage that has already been identified, it will not be possible to reopen these rooms to patients until the end of the year at the earliest - also depending on the results of the experts' investigations.
Offices become patient rooms
The ward where the fire broke out will have to be completely renovated. It is estimated that this will take many months. To compensate for the loss of patient rooms, the district hospital is therefore planning a temporary solution - and will convert rooms that are currently used as offices for doctors or clinical staff into patient rooms in the short term in close consultation with the insurer. These are two former wards that are now being reactivated. "We are working on gradually being able to offer the range of services we did before the fire. Everyone is working flat out and we remain confident and fully committed," reports Margarete Janson, Managing Director of the district hospital.
"Increase capacities to a maximum"
"Due to the fire, we currently lack around two thirds of our bed capacities," states Jürgen van der Horst, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the district hospital. The rooms on the ward where the fire broke out will not be available for the time being because extensive renovation work needs to be carried out there. "However, by rebuilding the two other wards in the old building as quickly as possible and reactivating two other former wards in parallel, we want to achieve a noticeable increase in the number of beds by the end of the year. The aim is to maximise our capacity again as quickly as possible under the difficult conditions - even if the after-effects of the fire will of course be with us for many months to come."
Work is also continuing on preparing the premises of the medical care centre, which also includes Malakeh Dali's paediatric practice. It is not yet possible to say when these will be fully restored.