The Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital Districts are currently unable to provide up-to-date information on the proportion of vaccinated and non-vaccinated patients treated for coronavirus infection.
On Wednesday, the chief physician of Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) Asko Järvinen told a news conference that two-thirds of those admitted to Covid Hospital are unvaccinated.
However, the data were based on data from 2021 and a statistical sample taken in early January, so it does not give an accurate picture of the current situation.
The lack of up-to-date information is due to a change in the way the vaccination status is recorded in HUS’s Apotti patient information system in early December.
Previously, medical staff wrote a medical report for each patient with Covid, mentioning the vaccination status. This information is compiled manually into a spreadsheet at the hospital’s communications department and was published once a week.
It was decided to stop manually compiling and publishing the data because manual entry was too laborious.
A quarter of the data are missing
Nursing staff should now enter the vaccination status of each patient directly into the patient information system by clicking in the multiple-choice column whether the patient has been vaccinated or not, and how many vaccinations have been received.
However, not all staff have adapted to the new routine. Currently, about a quarter of Covid patients lack vaccine status information from the system.
"The staff should not be blamed, as they have their hands full of work," says HUS’s chief physician at the Heart and Lung Center Antti Vento.
HUS says an accurate calculation right now would require doctors to look up information from patient records.
Yle asked for up-to-date information on the patients ’vaccination status, but doctors did not have time to review the patient data to provide an answer. However, Yle received fresh day readings on Thursday from Antti Vento, chief physician of the Heart and Lung Center.
"Currently, 53 percent of lung ward patients are unvaccinated, 6 percent have received one vaccination, and 38 percent have received two vaccinations. Three percent of patients have received three vaccinations," Vento said.
Slight increase in the number of vaccinated patients
Based on daily figures, the proportion vaccinated has started to rise slightly, not only in intensive care but also in wards.
"In any case, this does not mean that vaccines will not work. The vaccine provides very good protection against severe forms of the disease, Vento says.
According to HUS doctors, the proportion of unvaccinated people who are likely to be hospitalized will increase as the coronavirus is increasingly diagnosed in those undergoing treatment for other diseases. In the future, more and more vaccinated people will also become ill because of their age or underlying disease.
Vento points out that if vaccines had not been available, there would have been many more hospital patients.
"Without vaccines, we would be in big trouble," says Antti Vento, a doctor at HUS.
Source: The Nordic Page