The Podhale specialist hospital named after John Paul II in Nowy Targ, is ready to accept patients from Slovakia, Łukasz Kmita, the province governor of the Małopolska region has announced.
“I declare that we are ready to provide support to the Slovaks, if they need to redirect patients to Poland so that we can treat them ”, Łukasz Kmita has said, while visiting the Nowy Targ hospital. He added that decisions will be made at ministerial level, however he underlined that the region of Małopolska is ready to extend a helping hand to Poland’s southern neighbours.
The declaration comes in answer to the appeal of the Slovak government to European Union members to send medical workers to help the crisis hitting its hospitals.
Poland and Austria have offered Slovakia their help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Austria is to send to Slovakia a group of army paramedics and Poland has promised some 200 places in intensive care units in Poland.
Poland's Health Minister Adam Niedzielski, meanwhile, has not ruled out imposing restrictions at the country's borders with Slovakia and the Czech Republic due to their rising number of COVID-19 cases. Speaking for private broadcaster Radio Zet on Saturday, Niedzielski said that the decisions will be taken next week.
In January a more than 200-strong group of Polish doctors, nurses and paramedics helped test Slovakia's population for COVID-19, as part of the country's nationwide coronavirus testing campaign.
Source PAP