Why did ambulances with patients wait in a hours-long queue outside the Emergency Department?

The queue of emergency medical teams with patients outside Lubin’s Emergency Department was reported on January 24 by lubinextra.pl. The website’s journalists established that two ambulances with patients had been waiting for admission since 1:00 p.m. More then arrived, until the queue grew to 5 and eventually 6 ambulances. The emergency responders did not hide their irritation. At one point, the residents of Lubin and the surrounding area were left without medical protection in the event of emergencies in which human life would be at risk.

Piotr Borys, a Member of Parliament from the Civic Coalition, intervened at the scene and published a text on his Facebook profile, as well as posting a video report:

I demand the immediate intervention of Mateusz Morawiecki and the Lower Silesian Voivode! Five ambulances (all in Lubin County) have been waiting with patients outside the hospital in Lubin since 1:00 p.m.! Paralysis! Twenty people are waiting for ambulance assistance at home! The same is happening in Legnica. Please do something before someone dies!!!

Why was there such a queue of ambulances with patients outside the Emergency Department in Lubin?

It turned out that infectious outbreaks had occurred in two Lubin hospitals, and these caused the patient-admission system to become inefficient.

As we read on lubinextra.pl:

“(...) a very difficult situation arose in Lubin regarding the capacity of the health-care system,” explained Małgorzata Bacia, president of the Regional Health Center in Lubin, which operates the Emergency Department.

An infectious outbreak occurred in the internal medicine ward at the hospital on Bema Street. According to the RCZ president, the same situation occurred at the MCZ hospital, which caused the system for admitting patients brought to the hospital by ambulance to become inefficient.

“Our Emergency Department has 8 beds. Meanwhile, for several days we have had 12–16 patients, and yesterday there were 22.”

Late in the evening (on the same day, still before 11:00 p.m.), all patients from the ambulances waiting outside the Emergency Department had been admitted.