As reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the offer is linked to the difficult epidemic situation in the border towns of Zittau and the Görlitz district. Kamil Barczyk, director of the county hospital in Bolesławiec, confirms that it is ready to admit German patients.
– We are ready to admit Covid-19 patients. First and foremost, these are patients from Poland who are hospitalised from our region, but assistance has also been offered to German citizens, for now in a minimum number of 20 people – says hospital director Kamil Barczyk.
There is still no information on when German citizens will be sent to Bolesławiec. For now, such a declaration has been made. The hospital in Bolesławiec is ready for this.
– For now, we have 60 Covid-19 patients out of 120 beds and 14 ventilator beds out of 25. Our occupancy rate is 50%. The entire team is ready and willing to work with Covid-19 patients, and this is not only about helping citizens of Poland. We are a border region, a Euroregion, so we must cooperate in this area – the director adds.
In an interview with istotne.pl, President Piotr Roman also commented on the possibility of cooperation between Poland and Germany.
– This is some kind of diplomatic game – said Piotr Roman. – Two months ago, Germany offered to help Poland with equipment; now the Polish government is responding to Germany that we can offer ventilators and, they stress, Polish-made protective suits. The situation in Saxony, the state directly adjacent to our border, is indeed bad. Yesterday I had a teleconference with the Görlitz district governor, and the situation there is difficult. But the infection rate and death rate in Germany are still lower there than in Poland when calculated per million inhabitants. The standard of German healthcare is also decidedly better than ours. But this is a good sign that countries want to help one another. Even if we had patients from Görlitz or Zittau, they could be Poles who live there. After all, the new hospital ward was purchased in Görlitz. I come from the Euroregion; for me, borders no longer exist in people’s minds. If we support them and they support us, that is good – the president added.