For several days in a row now, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimír Pavlík and Captain Blanka Kupsová have been serving at the Cheb hospital. They have reinforced the local medical staff at the covid ward, where they care for thirty patients with various types of internal diseases. Since the beginning of February, eight soldiers from the 15th Engineer Regiment have also been helping here.

Picture: For several days in a row now, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimír Pavlík and Captain Blanka Kupsová have been serving at the Cheb hospital. (illustration photo) | Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic

“We are doctors and academics with attestation in internal medicine, general medicine, general hygiene and epidemiology, as well as nutrition hygiene,” explained Lt. Col. Pavlík, Deputy Head of the Department of Military Internal Medicine and Military Hygiene at the Faculty of Military Medicine of the University of Defence. Together with Captain Kupsová, he works in the internal medicine department, which now accommodates covid patients, as a secondary doctor. “Our patients have various diseases. They are treated for heart diseases, diabetes, or digestive problems. Many of them have sick lungs,” he commented on the condition of the patients.

“The request for medical reinforcement went from the level of the Ministry of Health in the standard way through the Central Crisis Staff. All military medical and paramedical personnel are now deployed in hospitals, which is why the Integrated Central Management Team has asked the Faculty of Military Health Sciences for assistance,” said Reserve Colonel Roman Chlíbek, Dean of the Faculty in Hradec Králové.

Both doctors had to relinquish their responsibilities at the department and reorganize shifts in their hospitals. Lieutenant Colonel Pavlík will remain in the hospital until March 7. Captain Kupsová until the end of February. Due to the fact that the Cheb hospital is located in the Karlovy Vary region, which is one of the three closed regions due to the pandemic situation, both doctors will serve in the place continuously.