Laakso Hospital’s chief physician Laura Pikkarainen has apologised after at least 14 patients on non-coronavirus wards at the hospital became infected.
Earlier this week news emerged that 69 workers at the hospital had been diagnosed with Covid-19 infections since 19 March. According to the hospital, about half of the staff members who'd been diagnosed with the illness had been working on wards treating patients with coronary heart disease.
Despite the first cases among staff being diagnosed in March, Pikkarainen said no widespread testing was carried out until the number of infections increased rapidly at the beginning of May.
"I am sorry that there were infections here and that we unable to avoid other patients becoming infected at the hospital," Pikkarainen told Yle. "However, when hospitalisation is considered appropriate, the benefits of treatment outweigh this risk."
Pikkarainen added that infectious disease contact tracers at the hospital are currently investigating whether the virus moved with workers from one ward to another.
"As a rule, workers are in only one department, but we have certain employees who move from one ward to another, such as therapists, departmental workers and departmental pharmacists," Pikkarainen explained. "It is not yet known whether the virus moved with workers from one ward to another."
Staff infections accelerated in May
The hospital is currently in the process of testing all 800 staff members for Covid-19, including those who do not show any symptoms of the disease. On Tuesday, the city's mayor Jan Vapaavuori said that more than 500 tests had been already carried out at Laakso.
"The infections in March were isolated cases and not yet a departmental epidemic," Pikkarainen said.
"The situation accelerated on May Day, with major infections among staff and also patient infections in another ward. It was only then that it became clear that protective measures and increased security measures should be put in place throughout the hospital," she said.
Pikkarainen added that the staff members diagnosed with Covid-19 in March and April have already returned to work, and workers diagnosed with the illness at the beginning of May will return in the next few days.
Doctors Janne Aaltonen and Eetu Salunen, writing in the Finnish Medical Journal in April, suggested that exposure to the virus could be limited by voluntary changes to shift patterns to protect healthcare workers, in response to the deaths of two working age doctors.