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Corona - capacities in intensive care units: "In the south they are practically used up"

2021-11-13T09:32:27.224Z


The places in intensive care units in southern and eastern Germany are in some cases almost exhausted. Many clinics are preparing the transfer of corona sufferers - sometimes to cities hundreds of kilometers away.


Enlarge image

Corona patient in Leipzig: number of operations reduced by more than 30 percent due to the pandemic

Photo: Waltraud Grubitzsch / picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentralbild

With the exploding corona numbers, the situation in numerous clinics in Germany has worsened enormously.

The capacities in the intensive care units are in some cases almost exhausted.

Operations that can be planned are postponed, patients may no longer find a free clinic in their area and are taken to other cities in their federal state.

The situation is particularly tense in the south and east.

According to a confidential report from the federal states, which is available to the newspapers of the Funke media group, it emerges that in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg "daily transfers between hospitals to compensate and maintain functionality" are already being carried out.

According to Funke newspapers, it is a report by the transnational steering group of the so-called clover leaf system, which is supposed to distribute the patients in the event of regional overload.

It says: "In the north there is still capacity, in the south it has practically been used up."

If an entire clover is overloaded, it is distributed across Germany.

Clinical staff at the limit

In addition to Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria, the clinics in Baden-Württemberg are also preparing for the transfer of patients to other federal states. However, the admission opportunities in other countries are also limited. Saxony-Anhalt, for example, can still care for sick people from its own country - but: "It looks like there is no capacity to take in patients from other federal states," said a spokesman for the hospital society there.

The main problem is not so much the lack of beds: "The biggest limiting factor that we currently have in the hospital sector is the staff," said the managing director of the Saxon State Hospital Association, Stephan Helm.

But, for example, the Lower Saxony hospital company, which has so far been less affected by the fourth wave, reports a lack of staff - due to layoffs, reduced working hours and internal job changes.

"The reason for this is the continuing stress on staff from the corona pandemic."

Only 82 of 637 intensive care beds in Thuringia are free

In Hesse and Bavaria, according to the intensive care register, only 8.1 and 9.1 percent of the intensive care beds were free on Friday: 144 of 1788 beds in Hesse and 282 of 3104 in Bavaria.

The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi) called for decisive action by politicians with a view to stricter corona countermeasures.

"We need clear decisions that are appropriate to the situation very quickly, namely for nationwide uniform rules," said Divi President Gernot Marx of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".

"And we need clear communication of the decisions and an end to the constant quarrels, so that what has been decided is implemented and adhered to."

In Thuringia, the country with the second highest seven-day incidence, the situation is dramatic.

In absolute numbers, this means: of the 637 intensive care beds, only 82 were recently free.

At the same time, the country has the highest proportion of corona patients in intensive care units, at 23.9 percent (152).

In the middle of the week, the hospital company there had said that patients were not being transferred to other federal states across the board, but it could be that hospitals in border regions are already doing this.

According to the Funke newspapers, the control group for patient distribution writes that the situation is "classified as dramatic, especially in Thuringia."

Ironically, the hardest hit countries form a "clover leaf"

But Saxony is also preparing to reactivate the cloverleaf principle and relocate patients to neighboring countries, as hospital boss Helm said.

The country has the highest seven-day incidence and the second highest proportion of corona patients in intensive care units (22.1 percent).

Of 1336 intensive care beds, 174 are still free (13 percent).

In particular, it could be problematic that Saxony forms a clover leaf with Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Brandenburg.

And in Thuringia the situation is even more dramatic, Saxony-Anhalt sees itself at the admission limit and Berlin had even fewer free intensive care beds in percentage terms on Friday (7.0) , 4 percent free beds).

The Leipzig University Hospital is postponing operations that are already not urgent.

The clinic announced that the number of interventions had been reduced by more than 30 percent.

However, urgent cases will continue to be operated on.

Europe's largest hospital, the Berlin Charité, had already announced such a procedure.

apr / dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-11-13

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