Hospitals sound the alarm: "The situation is highly critical"

The intensive care units in the southwest keep filling up.

There is no end in sight.

The clinic association expects more Covid intensive care patients than ever in the country - in just a few days.

Stuttgart - The situation in the intensive care units in Baden-Württemberg is getting worse. In 10 of the 44 urban and rural districts there is currently a maximum of one free intensive care bed for adults. That came out on Thursday from the current figures of the intensive care medicine association Divi. In 7 of the 44 districts, all beds are occupied, for example in the Hohenlohe district and in the Waldshut district. However, the circles can to a certain extent help each other out if there are bottlenecks.

The number of new infections reported by the health authorities is currently increasing rapidly, on Wednesday the state health office (as of 4:00 p.m.) reported a maximum of 10,162 within one day. The number of patients who need intensive care treatment has risen accordingly - by around 100 in the past seven days. On average, 0.8 percent of those infected end up in the intensive care unit. According to experts, the number of intensive care patients is about three weeks behind the infection figures.

The Baden-Württemberg Hospital Society (BWKG) is therefore expecting a bad winter.

At the end of last year, the country reached a peak with 642 Covid patients in intensive care units.

"We will definitely have exceeded this value in a week," said the managing director of the clinic association, Matthias Einwag, of the German press agency on Thursday.

Einwag doesn't want to rule out a four-digit value either.

“The situation is extremely critical.” 30 percent of the operations that can be planned have already been postponed.

And: "We are far beyond the fact that we are only talking about postponing knee or hip operations." A nurse normally takes care of two beds, which can no longer be maintained across the board.

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The intensive care units are also filling up.

Now a new high is looming - with serious consequences.

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The total number of adult corona patients in intensive care units in the southwest of around 440 is currently significantly lower than at the height of the second and third waves.

However, according to intensive care physicians, there are fewer operable beds than a year ago due to a lack of staff.

On average, around 10 percent of all operable intensive care beds for adults in the southwest are currently free, as the Divi figures show.

"After the last wave, many nurses turned their backs on the intensive care units because they were simply exhausted and burned out," said Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) of the dpa. He will advocate the possibility of recruiting staff for the clinics at short notice. "These can be students, retired doctors or other specialists and auxiliary staff who help out in the intensive care units during the pandemic phase without experiencing any tax disadvantages," said Lucha. "It should all work quickly and unbureaucratically."

Lucha said it was bitter that patient operations had to be postponed because there was no longer an intensive care bed available in an emergency.

“That's why I repeat myself: the pandemic is not a private matter.

Getting vaccinated is part of the overall social responsibility of every individual. "

To classify: According to Divi, 15 percent free beds “regionally in individual intensive care areas at certain times are nothing unusual”.

However, a free bed share of less than 15 percent or even less than 10 percent becomes problematic.

“Especially if this occurs in several regions and houses and over longer periods of time.

Standard relocation options, which can sometimes serve as a buffer, are then usually only possible to a very limited extent due to the many difficult cases. ”Dpa