Corona frustration of the clinic employees: the situation remains tense - patient numbers are almost back to a record level

Created: 2022-03-23Updated: 2022-03-23 ​​10:46 AM

By: Katrin Woitsch

At the limit: The situation is still tense in many Bavarian hospitals.

There are still many corona patients - even if they are no longer in the intensive care units.

©RobertMichael

While more and more corona rules are falling, the situation in the Bavarian clinics remains tense.

The number of Covid patients is increasing – at the same time employees are absent due to infections.

Munich – Markus Lerch is annoyed when he follows the news about the planned easing.

He is medical director at the LMU-Klinikum Großhadern in Munich.

There are currently 98 corona patients there.

"At the record time during the first wave, there were 105," emphasizes Lerch.

That number has almost been reached again.

The development is similar in most Upper Bavarian clinics.

The number of Covid patients in Bavaria has been increasing continuously since mid-February.

In the past week alone by 12.4 percent.

Most of the infected no longer have to be treated in the intensive care unit, says Lerch.

But the maintenance effort is enormous due to the high level of protective measures.

Corona in Bavaria: The number of Covid patients has been increasing continuously since mid-February

Doctors in many other clinics report the same thing.

"Most corona patients who end up in the hospital are over 60. More than two thirds are unvaccinated," says Reinhold Lang, medical director at the Schongau hospital.

There, too, many employees are frustrated, he says.

"I cannot understand that you can talk about easing and at the same time there is an order to continue postponing operations," he says.

The situation in the clinics in the Munich area is still very tense.

"The frustration is huge," says Lang.

The workload too.

Because many clinic employees are currently absent because they are infected themselves or have corona cases in their family.

In Großhadern, there are currently 437 out of 11,000 employees.

“We therefore also have to close stations,” says Lerch.

The team spirit has increased in many hospitals as a result of the pandemic.

Roland Engehausen, Managing Director of the Bavarian Hospital Society

Even if the number of infections falls in the coming weeks, the workload for doctors and nurses is likely to remain high.

Because knee, hip or shoulder operations that have been postponed for a long time will then be made up for.

That will take months.

But there is something else that worries the doctors at least as much.

Ulrike Witt, the senior physician for emergency medicine at the Agatharied Clinic in the Miesbach district, reports that an unusually large number of people have recently been admitted to the emergency room whose therapies had been postponed due to the pandemic.

Corona situation in clinics: Also high workload due to postponed surgeries

This has also been noticed in other clinics.

Markus Lerch reports that preventive examinations have fallen by 15 to 20 percent.

"There are no more cancers because of Corona," he emphasizes.

"But there are more cancer diagnoses in a serious stage." The situation is similar for heart patients.

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The pandemic years have also left their mark on hospitals financially.

According to a survey by the Bavarian Hospital Society (BKG), two-thirds of the clinics fear red numbers.

Already last year, 62 percent of the hospitals made a loss.

The forecast for this year is similar – not including rising energy costs due to the war in Ukraine.

BKG Managing Director Roland Engehausen called for reliable support from politicians.

Engehausen reports that the number of staff in the hospitals has remained the same despite the enormous workload and the facility-related compulsory vaccination.

The vaccination rate in the clinics is over 95 percent.

"The team spirit has become even greater in many houses as a result of the pandemic."

You can find more current news from the region around Schongau at Merkur.de/Schongau.