While European countries average 11.5 intensive care beds per 100,000 population, “wartime needs could require three to five times this capacity,” said Bjørn Guldvog, special adviser at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, at a health security event in April. Sustaining a high volume of operations for weeks or months would also be challenging: “Most facilities can sustain maybe 120-150 percent of normal surgical volume for 24 to 48 hours,” he said. Blood and oxygen supplies would also become critical.
Stockpiles and supply chains
Even the best-prepared hospitals can’t function without medicines, supplies and equipment, and the Baltic countries are stocking up in preparation for mass casualties. Estonia, for example, has allocated €25 million for mass casualty supplies, including orthopedic gear, tourniquets and trauma kits — “the only heavy investment we have made,” Health Minister Riina Sikkut said at an event in February.
Stockpiles would ensure that hospitals can run until supplies from allies reach them, Vaiknemets said, adding that NATO is crucial to securing supply routes.
In Latvia, health-care institutions have been required since Covid-19 to maintain a three-month supply of medicines. “I have never thought that I would say thanks to Covid, but thanks to Covid … we found financial resources,” said Agnese Vaļuliene, health ministry state secretary. The country is also working on national stockpiles.
But the Baltics are too close to the front lines to keep emergency supplies safe, said Jos Joosten, a medical adviser at the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic corps. As a result, other EU countries must “identify the things that are scarce, that are very difficult to organize, specifically for the small nations,” Joosten said. “And then we should give [up] some sovereignty, give it to the European Union to make decisions” on distributing what is needed.
Stockpiles from the Red Cross, national reserves and rescEU, the EU’s emergency service, must all be ready to reach the front line — and civilian patients. “We have to have good crisis plans,” Sikkut said.
