4,200 volunteers in the Bavaria care pool – the number of calls for help could soon rise sharply because of Omikron

Created: 2022-01-29Updated: 2022-01-29 11:07 am

By: Katrin Woitsch

Helpers urgently needed: Hospitals or homes can request reinforcements via the care pool.

More than 4200 volunteers are registered there.

© Picture Alliance

Over 4,200 volunteers have registered in the Bavarian care pool to help out when emergency situations arise in hospitals or homes.

The calls for help still come only occasionally.

But that could change quickly with the increasing number of infections.

Munich – Alexander Volk (name changed) experienced the pandemic from many perspectives. He worked in an intensive care unit, in a vaccination center and currently in a corona test station. The 49-year-old from Munich is actually a self-employed medical device technician, specializing in ventilators. When he found out about the care pool in Bavaria in March 2020, he registered immediately. On the platform, volunteers are placed with hospitals, nursing services or homes that urgently need support. Most volunteers come from a nursing background. But people with other professions can also help - Alexander Volk was immediately offered a place to work: the Corona ward of the Neuperlach Clinic. His first assignment took place right on the front line in the fight against the virus.

Corona in Bavaria: Munich is fighting on the front line - "A lot was shocking"

Volk took care of the ventilators for three months - and experienced the hardship and misery in the clinic directly.

"A lot of things were shocking," he says.

It was the phase of the pandemic when protective gear ran out.

At that time, Volk worked more than eight hours a day.

The three months were exhausting – physically and emotionally.

But he has no regrets about volunteering.

"I knew that I was helping where help was urgently needed."

The will to help is still great.

Michael Wittmann, Managing Director of the Association of Nurses in Bavaria

Nurse helps in a retirement home during the pandemic: "I really wanted to help at the time"

Marion Zagler felt the same way. The trained nurse worked in an ENT practice in spring 2020 and volunteered to help in a retirement home where there had been a corona outbreak. She, too, worked significantly more hours than she was paid for. "I really wanted to help back then," says the 39-year-old. The overburdened nursing staff in the home - but also the seniors who had to get through the difficult weeks without their families because of the ban on visits. It was a tough time, she says. But helping was nice, she thinks. A matter of the heart.

Volk and Zagler are two of 4291 volunteers who have registered in the care pool.

More than half of them have experience in the care sector.

Some have changed jobs, are now working in medical practices or are already retired - everyone wants to help.

But not only nurses are placed, explains Michael Wittmann, Managing Director of the Association of Nurses in Bavaria.

More than 700 medical assistants, 346 people from the hotel and catering industry, 34 midwives and 23 pharmaceutical technical assistants have also registered.

They too are needed.

Corona in Bavaria: care pool works like a contact exchange

The care pool works like a contact exchange, explains Wittmann.

As soon as many employees in a hospital, in a home or in a nursing service are absent due to illness or quarantine, the facilities can start a call in the nursing pool.

Anyone who has registered there will be forwarded the request - if it relates to the area and the activity that the volunteers had specified.

"It's up to you whether you want to respond to the call," says Wittmann.

If they step in, they will be released from work by their employers.

"They continue to pay the salary, but the state reimburses it," he explains.

However, the volunteers must be members of a charity.

Because the Disaster Control Act is the legal basis for the care pool.

For example, the volunteers are insured against accidents during their assignment through the aid organizations.

"There are also time-limited memberships," says Wittmann.

The care pool should be organized as easily and unbureaucratically as possible.

When the emergency was declared in November, many inquiries came from institutions.

Things have calmed down a bit since Christmas.

But the high number of infections could soon become noticeable.

If many nursing staff are absent due to illness or have to be in quarantine, the inquiries could increase very quickly, according to Wittmann.

The fact that the number of registrations is constantly increasing makes him confident.

"The will to help is still great."

You can read all the news about the corona virus in our news ticker for Bavaria.