Dr.
Steffen Herdtle, pandemic officer at Agatharied Hospital.
But he would have gone a step further.
Agatharied - Politicians no longer want to base corona measures only on the incidence, but also on the occupancy of the intensive care beds.
Dr.
Steffen Herdtle, pandemic officer and chief physician of the central emergency room at the Agatharied hospital, would even have gone a step further.
In our conversation, he explains why this is the case and why it is easy to misunderstand the occupancy of the intensive care beds.
Agatharied Hospital: The situation in the intensive care unit
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Mr. Herdtle, soon the occupancy of the beds in your hospital will also decide on the corona measures in the district. A good idea?
Oh well.
A year ago, the number of corona patients in our hospital was still similar to the incidence.
As the incidence increased, more patients came.
In the meantime, the virus and the situation in the county have changed.
Immediately after the vaccinations began in the nursing homes, the particularly severe cases in these age groups suddenly decreased.
Now the incidence alone no longer reflects the situation.
That is why it is right to look at other values as well.
Is the occupancy of the intensive care beds the correct value for the calculation?
The intensive care beds show how sick people are.
This is an important aspect of the pandemic.
But they only represent the extreme case.
Corona patients in the normal ward may scratch past the intensive care bed.
Nevertheless, they need a single room and they consume resources.
I would also have liked their share in the statistics.
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In the past few months, your intensive care unit has been fairly evenly full, even without corona cases. How come
The total utilization of the intensive care unit says nothing about the corona situation.
This is because intensive care beds are a rare commodity.
One nurse takes care of two patients instead of ten to fifteen;
we have more options for handling and storage.
Some serious interventions such as tumor surgery require intensive medical follow-up care for the patient for several days.
We also have to keep some places free for emergencies.
Like every intensive care unit in Germany, ours is always at least 80 percent full.
Otherwise we will assign more surgery appointments.
The statistics will therefore not use the total utilization of the intensive care unit, but the proportion of corona patients there.
Why is it important?
Because we cannot perform certain interventions if corona patients block the places.
We postponed many operations in the spring.
We want to clear the traffic jam.
Imagine having a tumor in your stomach or hip pain for years.
Every day that they get rid of their suffering earlier counts.
But we are already making an appointment for the operation in December.
That's why I ask everyone to get vaccinated.
That keeps the seats free.
In your experience, does vaccination prevent severe disease?
We have not yet had a single vaccinated person who had to be treated in hospital for Covid-19.
Those who are lying there now are unvaccinated people who have returned from their travels.
One is around 30;
he is also having a hard time.
So the vaccination helps in any case.
That is why there is a lack of understanding among the staff when people do not get vaccinated.
Other people need the beds and our staff is at the limit.
We would be happy to no longer have to breathe through FFP2 masks all day at some point.
How do you see autumn?
We are very excited about autumn.
Then there are also colds, asthma cases get worse.
They too need beds and ventilators.
We don't even know what to expect.
We are at attention.
Corona in numbers
From March 2020 to the end of July 2021, Agatharied Hospital treated 483 corona patients. 111 of them were seriously ill and were in the intensive care unit or intermediate intensive care unit. The main months were April 2020 and the turn of the year from December 2020 to February 2021. Since then, the number of Covid patients has been falling: in May the hospital treated 27, in June three, in July only one patient.