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Michael Kretschmer (CDU), Prime Minister of Saxony
Photo: Robert Michael / dpa
After the sensational triage statement by a doctor from Zittau, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer said: "The request to speak from Zittau is a call for help," said the CDU politician in Dresden.
Everyday work in German hospitals is "extremely tense".
Protective measures make work more difficult, there are staff shortages due to illness or quarantine.
The medical director of the Oberlausitzer Bergland Clinic, Mathias Mengel, reportedly spoke of triage in an online forum on Tuesday evening.
Triage means that medical professionals must decide who to help first due to scarce resources.
From the hospital environment, it was said that such prioritization in emergency medical treatment is not uncommon and also occurs again and again outside of a pandemic.
Mengel did not mean by his statements that patients were left to their fate so that others could be helped.
Kretschmer now referred to the "applicable ethical and medical standards".
After that, work will be carried out in Zittau and all over Saxony, he said.
There are no Covid-19 rules that deviate from it.
Medical treatment is always based on individual considerations.
Tense situation in Saxony
"I am grateful to Federal Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer for her promise that the Bundeswehr will continue to help in the hospital beyond the turn of the year," said Kretschmer.
In the state parliament he had said that around 700 Bundeswehr soldiers were currently deployed in Saxony to combat the corona pandemic.
In addition, physicians in private practice are to be increasingly involved in providing care over the next few weeks.
(Read the current developments on the corona crisis here)
Saxony's Minister of Health Petra Köpping (SPD) described the alleged triage statement as a "warning call".
Those responsible wanted to show: "We will soon no longer know how to care for the patients," said the Minister in Dresden on the sidelines of a state parliament debate.
However, she could not confirm the case itself.
The situation in Saxony is tense.
"Everyone knows that," said Köpping.
She pointed out that in Saxony there is good coordination among the hospitals in the cluster regions of Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig.
"It is agreed every day with a control center which patient with what severity of illness can be brought to which hospital."
The mayor of Zittau also sounds the alarm.
The hospitals in the region had exceeded their performance limit in the corona pandemic, said Thomas Zenker.
Rapid help is needed to move patients to other hospitals.
The capacities of the regional rescue services were no longer sufficient.
"It is clear that we cannot make any progress in this situation on our own," said Zenker, who came to office for a local electoral association.
Support from the Bundeswehr is welcome, but alternatives are also needed in order to be able to bring corona patients to hospitals further away.
Limited capacity
The capacities in Eastern Saxony are coordinated by a hospital control center located at the Dresden University Hospital.
In the past few days, "more" patients from the Bautzen and Görlitz districts had to be moved to more distant hospitals, said the head of the control center, Christian Kleber.
These transports to Dresden and Leipzig are always there when regional hospitals no longer have admission capacities for corona patients.
It was still about individual cases.
However, it can be assumed that the number of cases will increase in the coming days.
East Saxony with the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz is one of the current Corona hotspots in Germany.
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bbr / dpa
