Photos and videos from inside the Matei Bals Institute in Bucharest show a medical unit overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. 

"The intensive care moved on the hallways," reads the message of the man who shared the images on social media.

The videos and pictures show patients sitting on chairs and benches in the hallways, hooked up to oxygen tanks. Other patients are treated in beds in the hallways.

"This is how the hallways of Matei Bals hospital look like with COVID patients; it is frightening, they have nowhere to sit, patients receive oxygen sitting on chairs, they are hospitalized on campaign beds. The intensive care moved on the hallways. I don't even want to bring up the doctors' hard work, I haven't seen them drink a glass of water since this morning," Constantin Vasile Ifteme said in his Facebook post. 

He also said that people need to understand that the healthcare system can no longer cope with the large number of patients.

Adrian Marinescu, an infectious disease doctor at the Matei Bals Institute, told Digi24 that this is the reality for many COVID-19 hospitals across the country.

He said that there are frequently more than 30 patients in the emergency room, given that the number of beds is 19, maximum 20. "This means that the rest will be hospitalized in an improvised bed or on a chair, being patients who, for the most part, need oxygen. Oxygen treatment is vital for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and those with severe forms of infection must receive oxygen immediately. They get oxygen as soon as they arrive in the emergency room. Later, we try to find an alternative but, unfortunately, we can't find it so fast, and the patients stay in the emergency room for longer periods, they can stay for up to 24 hours," the doctor explained.

According to him, patients have been treated on chairs in the emergency room for weeks, ever since Bucharest started registering significant increases in COVID-19 cases.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Constantin Vasile Ifteme)