Two years of Corona in the Miesbach district: This is the situation in the Agatharied hospital

Created: 05/03/2022 17:22

By: Katja Schlenker

Nursing director Sven Steppat explains the corona situation in the Agatharied hospital in an interview.

158 people have already died from the virus in the Miesbach district.

© KKH

Hausham – Two years ago, on March 5, 2020, the first corona case became known in the Miesbach district.

A summary by Nursing Director Sven Steppat from the Agatharied Hospital.

Two years of Corona in the Miesbach district and thus also in the Agatharied hospital: Nursing director Sven Steppat explains in an interview with

how the staff is going through this exceptional situation, what the facility-related vaccination requirement, which will apply from mid-March, means for the employees and what he means from the government at federal and state level for the coming summer, so that no further severe Corona winter can develop.

Nursing director Steppat, on March 5, 2020, the first corona case in the Miesbach district became known.

As a nurse, how do you react to such a new virus?

Basically, every nurse, just like every other citizen, is alarmed when such an unknown virus appears.

But: Nursing staff are used to it and have learned to deal with illnesses and even infectious diseases.

In nursing, topics such as meticulous hygiene and dealing with infectious diseases have not only been on the agenda since Corona.

When the first international media and later the nationwide news announced that the virus was getting closer, a regular crisis team was convened in our hospital at the end of January - long before the official request from the Ministry of Health.

This still exists today and has helped us to deal with the situation and react quickly throughout.

Is there an emergency plan in place for such a case?

In fact, the plan for dealing with a disaster was in the drawer, so to speak.

It was not about a plan for the case of a pandemic in particular, but for the case of a threat to hospital care in general.

Nevertheless, these precautions helped to react quickly and constructively if necessary and to adapt the plans to the requirements of the pandemic.

Since a lot was still unclear at the beginning of the corona pandemic, were you worried about making a mistake in the care?

The situation was completely new for everyone.

How big was or is the fear of getting infected and then possibly also family members?

As already described above, the care in dealing with infectious diseases is routine.

So there was no worry of making mistakes.

The concern of being able to infect family members was certainly still there, especially when there were neither vaccinations nor sufficient testing capacities.

From the time when hospital employees could have themselves tested free of charge at any time, it was a great relief for everyone.

There were temporary supply bottlenecks with the equipment...

The scarce resources for protective items were more problematic at the beginning.

As you can probably still remember, protective masks, gloves and disinfectants in particular were in short supply during the first wave.

As far as these things are concerned, it was extremely helpful for our hospital that the crisis management team was set up so quickly, the distribution of tasks, for example for procurement of materials, was clearly defined and was in experienced hands.

We were therefore able to avoid real bottlenecks with protective articles.

It should also be emphasized here that the exchange with the health department and the district office has always worked very well.

There we experienced first-class support, especially when it came to material procurement issues.

Has the hospital staff ever been attacked about the situation, such as someone not being allowed to visit the hospital?

There are certainly patients and relatives who find it very difficult with the visitor regulations and also make this known.

Here, care is of course the first point of contact – since it is on site 24/7.

However, most of them react with a lot of understanding.

Our exceptional regulations for the seriously ill, relatives of demented and dying patients as well as children and for the fathers of newborn children are important and right for a safe and humane handling.

We regret that we have to adhere to the ban on visits at this point in time and in view of the continued high incidences.

We too hope to get better soon.

In these tense times, how do you manage to keep the employees, who are all working at the limit, motivated?

Our employees in all areas achieve incredible things.

I think at this point we are all motivated by team spirit and our intrinsic drive to help our patients.

In addition to the enormous workload caused by the pandemic, we are also burdened by drastic absences from illness.

We can only get through this together by strengthening each other's backs, stepping in for each other and recognizing each other's accomplishments.

I cannot say enough words of thanks to the hospital staff.

It is they who, despite all the adversities of the past two years, are maintaining the hospital care in the district of Miesbach with great difficulty.

From mid-March, facility-related vaccination will apply nationwide.

Is this the right way – possibly also for everyone?

If vaccination is compulsory, then please for everyone.

That's why I'm basically in favor of a general obligation to vaccinate, because vaccination is currently the only way to protect yourself from serious illnesses.

At the same time, this protects healthcare facilities from being overloaded.

A vaccination requirement exclusively for staff in health facilities to protect vulnerable groups is therefore off the table with Omikron at the latest, as can be seen from the current infection numbers even among vaccinated people.

It is therefore unfair to impose the responsibility for vaccination on individual groups of people just because they work in the healthcare sector.

This creates a feeling of injustice, especially in care after two difficult years during the pandemic, which in turn leads to emigration.

In the shortage of nursing staff, the loss of relatively few nursing professionals hits the corresponding facilities hard.

Only compulsory vaccination for everyone would prevent this.

On March 20th there should be Freedom Day in Germany, when most of the corona restrictions should fall.

Is it about time or do you think it's too soon?

Two hearts beat in my chest at this question.

Intended as a private person, I of course welcome all the freedoms that we are getting back with it.

After all, celebrations, travel, major events and going to the restaurant without a test are things that give us joie de vivre and are an expression of our free society.

At the same time, as a member of the clinic management and as a representative of my professional group, I look to the future with concern.

We are currently confronted with a serious situation in the hospital.

We have so many corona-related staff absences every day that we can only maintain our patient care with great difficulty.

If the openings lead to a renewed increase in the number of infections, that would be extremely critical for us.

Now that the second Corona winter is behind us with restrictions, what should the government at federal and state level do over the summer so that next winter does not turn into a Corona winter again?

As we have seen regularly over the past two years, most viruses mutate from time to time.

This also makes it difficult to predict the right measures at this point in time.

With one or more waves in autumn, we not only have to take care of the patients who have to go to the hospital because of Corona, but also the patients who originally had to be treated with Corona but because of another illness.

However, these generate the same hygiene and insulation costs.

In addition, there are large staff absences due to illness, as is the case now.

For all of these reasons, as a hospital, we are in favor of introducing the general obligation to vaccinate in summer, as mentioned above.

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