The fourth corona wave is causing the intensive care units to fill up, in some regions there is already a red alert. Again, the nursing staff have to go to their limit.
Particularly bitter: unlike previous waves, this escalation could have been avoided with more vaccinations.
A high number of unvaccinated Covid patients now encounter burned-out staff in the clinics.
Some have already thrown out or reduced their working hours, which exacerbates the staff shortage.
How long can the remaining ones hold out?
As part of the vote, we talk to the intensive care workers affected in Saxony and Bavaria.
"We have also had patients who gasped for breath and still did not say that it could be due to Covid," says one of them.
"I would love to collect these people and put them in the nursing profession - so that they just work with us," says another.
Bernd Becker from the Ver.di union fears that the shortage of personnel in intensive care will increase.
In the podcast he makes suggestions for small and large improvements in the health system.
We also talk to health policy expert Milena Hassenkamp from the SPIEGEL capital city office about the term of office of Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn and the challenges for the future traffic light coalition.
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The sources and links to the broadcast can be found here.