Concern at Agatharied Hospital: Postponed treatments become emergencies

Created: 03/25/2022, 05:24

Treatments that have been postponed due to Corona are increasingly ending up in Agatharied hospital as urgent cases.

© Robert Michael/dpa (symbol image)

Hausham – Patients whose treatments have been repeatedly postponed during the coronavirus pandemic are increasingly being admitted to Agatharied Hospital as emergencies.

After the contact restrictions have been lifted, fairs, folk festivals and large gatherings are allowed again.

Society can get closer together again and Corona can take a back seat.

But the virus is far from gone.

On the contrary: the incidences are higher than ever.

If more people meet again, it must be assumed that they will continue to be infected unchecked.

The hospitals in the region are already at the absolute limit, according to the Agatharied hospital.

We are watching this with great concern.

More corona infections feared

"We expect the corona numbers to continue to rise as part of the relaxation measures," says Michael Städtler, medical director of the rescue service in the rescue association of the independent city of Rosenheim and the districts of Rosenheim and Miesbach.

For the hospitals, this means three different consequences at the same time:

Large number of beds lost due to Corona

This has an enormous impact on treatment capacities.

The example of the Agatharied hospital makes it clear how many beds have to be lost due to Corona in order to care for the population.

By 2019, the district clinic operated around 350 planned beds.

This corresponded exactly to the number that is necessary according to the hospital planning for the population of the district of Miesbach and the extended catchment area.

"Previously, the beds were occupied an average of 80 to 90 percent - a typical occupancy for a house that provides basic and standard care with acute and emergency medicine," explains Benjamin Bartholdt, the new director of the Agatharied hospital.

"If you now take into account all the beds that cannot be operated to reduce the risk of infection or due to a lack of staff, especially in nursing, the hospital has been missing up to 30 percent of its treatment capacities for non-Covid patients for more than two years."

The causes are complex:

• In order to isolate corona patients, up to two complete wards are permanently run in Agatharied as isolation areas for corona-positive patients.

• In addition, there are isolation beds for emergency patients in single occupancy, for whom the final test result is still pending.

• In addition, proportionate beds in the children's, birth, monitoring and intensive care unit for Corona must be kept available at all times.

• It is also serious that the four-bed rooms are only occupied with a maximum of two to three beds for patient protection in order to have fewer contact persons in the event of an emergency.

• In order to be able to care for as many patients as possible, the fluctuating demand for corona beds is responded to every day.

  For the staff, this means a great deal of organizational effort.

• Some of the stations and lock areas have to be adapted with interim structural solutions.

• Hygienic intensive cleaning also eats up time and resources.

• Duty scheduling can only be done on sight and only within the framework of what can be planned.

Workforce infected with Corona

After all, the corona virus does not stop at the workforce and the 7-day incidences in Germany and the district of Miesbach are also reflected in the staff: "During the year 2022 to date, between 70 and more than 100 employees were ill every day," says the clinic with.

As a result, even half of the wards had to be closed at times, since the staffing levels, which were already thin due to the large number of absences due to illness and which can usually no longer be fully compensated for by those who are not (yet) ill, simply lacked the employees to maintain responsible patient care .

Staff shortages in nursing are coming to a head

Apart from acute waves of illness, the general shortage of nursing staff, which already existed before the pandemic, has drastically worsened again as a result of the Corona crisis.

Already heavily burdened, the pressure on all professional groups in health and care facilities has increased with the pandemic.

“All of our employees who come into contact with patients wear FFP2 masks at all times – eight to nine hours a day.

In addition, in the areas with a confirmed or still questionable Covid diagnosis, there is the sweaty protective equipment," says Nursing Director Sven Steppat with concern.

“And then, in the case of these professional groups, the commitment to the profession is put to the test by compulsory vaccination that applies exclusively to them.

All of this comes at the expense of patient care.

If vaccination has to be compulsory, then this should apply to the entire population.”

Postponed patients become emergencies

In summary, the supply capacities of the hospitals are massively strained.

Last but not least, this also demands a lot of understanding and forbearance from family doctors if the admission processes cannot be organized as quickly and optimally as the hospital claims.

In the emergency rooms of all hospitals in the region, patients are currently being delivered by ambulance almost every day, whose treatment has been considered elective and postponed for the past few months.

But postponement is increasingly no longer an option.

Because of Corona there are no beds for admission

"An exceptionally large number of patients who have recently been brought to the emergency room by the emergency services report that they have had their pain for some time," says Ulrike Witt, Senior Physician in charge of acute and emergency medicine at Agatharied Hospital, sharing her impressions .

Their treatment had previously not been considered urgent and could not be planned and had therefore been delayed further and further.

It now seems to be paying off.

"It is becoming an increasingly serious problem that we are currently unable to treat patients who do not have any serious illnesses, but whose poor general condition and pain would make inpatient clarification necessary, because we lack the beds due to the corona situation", explains Ulrike Witt.

"The fact that not every patient in the district can get the care they need and for which I was trained makes me think and sad."

Acute emergency care guaranteed

At the same time, the emergency doctor promises her team's greatest commitment to the patients.

Even if everyday life with a mask and the tense staffing levels are stressful, Dr.

Witt guarantees acute emergency care at all times.

The Agatharied hospital, like the other clinics in the region, has to repeatedly limit their supply capacities compared to the central rescue control center.

The care of life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks, strokes, acute diseases of the internal organs and serious injuries resulting from accidents, as well as the safety of every patient who comes to the hospital, is guaranteed at all times.