Clinic managing director Florian Aschbrenner spoke in the district council about the current situation.
The good news: the hospital is still operating normally.
Dachau
- In many ways, the past few months have been extreme for the employees of the Helios Amper Clinic.
On the one hand, the corona pandemic demanded the utmost commitment from all colleagues.
On the other hand, there was a lack of employment due to the corona crisis: According to Aschbrenner, the Dachau Clinic recorded a drop in the number of cases of 5,000, which corresponds to a decrease in the workload of 20 percent compared to the previous year.
Unlike many other clinics, Helios did not opt for short-time work or downsizing.
Why did fewer patients come to the hospital from the middle of March?
“Surprisingly, there were fewer emergencies” such as heart attacks or strokes, and many, especially older people, decided to forego some interventions voluntarily.
Aschbrenner described the relationship between nursing staff and clinic management to the district councils as good.
A great many employees would “not feel addressed” by the personnel discussions - especially after saying goodbye to Nursing Director Gesa Breckweg (we reported).
Thanks in part to Breckweg's work, the employees in the Amper clinics would find “good working conditions”;
that eight out of nine apprentices would remain loyal to the house speaks for the clinic.
The so-called nursing staff lower limit regulation, which is to come into force from January 1, 2021, will not pose a problem for the Helios Amper clinics.
Basically, according to Aschbrenner, “the number of heads is not decisive, but the processes.
If it doesn't work between doctor, nurse and administration, it creates frustration! "
But it could be frustrating that both Aschbrenner and District Administrator Stefan Löwl rejected the so-called Munich allowance for the hospital staff.
The district, according to Löwl, will "if possible not interfere in tariff negotiations", but will primarily want to create added value for the clinic employees by building employee apartments.
Clinic boss Aschbrenner referred to the recently negotiated collective agreement, which does not provide for a Munich allowance, but at least a Corona bonus.
Apropos Corona: Here you are currently "in the middle of the second wave", as Aschbrenner emphasized.
The first wave peaked at the end of March, with twelve Covid intensive care patients, a number of infected employees and finally a five-day closure.
"Group-wide," said Aschbrenner, Helios Dachau treated "the most Covid cases".
Fortunately, the situation today is still different.
As of Friday, ten infected people are in the hospital, three of them in intensive care, none of which is ventilated.
The currently twelve intensive care beds are therefore still sufficient, so the clinic continues to operate “in normal operation”.
The maximum expansion stage, namely 58 intensive care beds, does not currently have to be activated.
District Administrator Löwl added that the Munich clinics did not have to increase their intensive care units either.
However, if a disaster should actually be declared in Bavaria, as announced by Prime Minister Markus Söder, this “normal operation” at the clinics would end: the state government would then take over the “intensive care bed coordination”.
Nursing staff are available for this case, as Aschbrenner explained when asked.
Thanks to the “great solidarity” of the employees, doctors or administrative colleagues trained as nurses would be able to take over intensive care after a “refresher course”.
The clinic currently has ten vacancies in the care sector.
Active poaching of staff from other clinics is "prohibited" in the current situation.
In the long term, however, both additional staff and a new department should strengthen the Helios Amper Clinic, the clinic boss announced.
The aim is a strategic development of the facility, at the end of which all those involved - including the Dachau district councils - should say: "We have an excellent clinic!"
