More and more beds have to remain free: failures among clinic staff are skyrocketing

Created: 01/21/2022 21:23

By: Marius Epp

More and more nurses are falling ill in German hospitals.

© Jens Büttner/dpa

German clinics are losing their staff.

The number of absences due to illness is currently above average.

Munich – The thin staff situation in the care sector has been a problem for years anyway.

But what makes the situation even more precarious at the moment: there are significantly more clinic staff than usual.

The

published a survey by the German Hospital Society (DKG) among more than 240 clinics.

It resulted in above-average staff shortages.

According to the institute, this could be due to the omicron wave.

Almost three quarters of the clinics report higher staff absences than is usual at this time of year.

Corona: Significantly more sick leave in German hospitals

The situation is particularly dramatic in twelve percent of the hospitals: more than 20 percent more employees are ill there than in previous winters.

"The data suggest that the significantly higher staff absences are due to omicron infections among hospital employees," says DKG Chairman Gerald Graß.

"The failures are a much bigger problem than in normal years."

In the survey, every second hospital stated that it was currently not able to fully operate its beds on the general wards.

However, there is initially no risk of a clinical collapse because, according to initial findings, the omicron variant is generally milder than, for example, the delta variant.

The number of Corona * patients in the intensive care unit has been falling since mid-December.

Corona: England and France relax

Graß is cautiously optimistic: "We were originally concerned that the infections would double within two to three days.

We don't see that in Germany.

Unlike in other countries.”

However, Alex Friedrich, medical director at the University Hospital in Münster, does not advocate easing the restrictions, such as those implemented in France or England.

Among other things, the mask requirement should fall there.

"Letting the virus loose from the chain would mean that hundreds of thousands would become infected in a short period of time, thousands would become ill and the health system would collapse," he warns.

Markus Söder presented a new Corona course for Bavaria.