"The patients are piling up in the corridors" - Munich nurses sound the alarm
Created: 2022-10-12 04:58
By: Carina Zimniok, Regina Mittermeier
Munich clinics are about to collapse.
"The patients are piling up in the corridors," says a fire letter from the nurses (archive photo).
© Wolfgang Maria Weber / imago
The clinic staff in Munich sounds the alarm because the supply is about to collapse.
The reason for this is the wave of illness after the Wiesn.
It exacerbates the nursing shortage.
Munich – Nurse Christina Erbel (42) stepped in for a colleague yesterday.
Like last week.
The wave of illnesses that is currently rolling over Munich – it can also be felt in the clinics.
Emergency care is still largely guaranteed, but the situation is very tense, according to a spokesman for the Munich Clinic.
But there is a risk of collapse.
The need in the emergency rooms has never been greater, worries a doctor from a Munich hospital who does not want to be named.
Munich: The situation in clinics has never been so tense
The incidences are increasing throughout Bavaria - but in the state capital they are particularly high after the Wiesn.
The Robert Koch Institute reported a slightly lower incidence of 1024.7 for Monday.
The Oktoberfest has multiplied the number of corona cases - and also brought the flu to the city too early, the doctor told our editorial team.
Patients, nurses and doctors suffer from this, says nurse Christina Erbel.
Because the number of sick people is increasing, many nurses and doctors themselves are sick in bed at home.
Around 500 employees at the LMU Klinikum are currently suffering from Covid-19 alone.
There are also many cases of cold.
That means those who are fit enough to work work extra shifts.
Even before the pandemic, there was a nursing shortage, and for the past two and a half years, Covid has been exacerbating the staff shortage and poor working conditions.
The works council of the Munich clinic is also alarmed.
In a fire letter, the members addressed OB Dieter Reiter and Munich's health officer Beatrix Zurek (both SPD).
The Munich clinic is "dangerously overburdened," says the letter that is available to our editors.
"The patients are piling up in the hallways."
According to the works council, around half of the doctors and nursing staff in the Munich clinics are absent – “with an upward trend”.
According to the clinic spokesman, 250 employees are currently suffering from Corona.
In the event of staff shortages, hospitals partially or completely withdraw from emergency care.
But currently many houses are working on the attack.
Therefore, all hospitals providing emergency care have since signed off last week, according to a spokesman for the Helios Kliniken.
The company operates two houses in Pasing and Perlach.
Because emergency patients still have to be cared for, they continue to be brought to the overcrowded clinics.
Munich clinic: works council writes fire letter
The situation is out of control, complains the works council of the Munich clinic.
He demands: More treatments and surgeries that can be postponed must be canceled – until the situation relaxes.
Another requirement: Relief is possible if other clinics participate in emergency care and make beds available.
There are some hospitals in the city that still have capacity.
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But as it is, beds remain empty because there is no supply.
This is currently happening in the Third Order Clinic, in the LMU Clinic and in the Barmherzige Brüder Hospital.
The Munich clinics even close entire wards at times.
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Protest: Doctors open practices later
Because they see patient care at risk, many doctors in Bavaria opened their practices later on Monday (at 10 a.m.) in protest.
"The demands of the health insurance companies for zero rounds of fees ensure that practices can hardly be operated economically anymore in the face of inflation," said the board of directors of the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVB) in Munich.
There was also criticism of the plans of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to remove the new patient regulation from the law.
"Under these conditions, young doctors can no longer be encouraged to work in their own practice," it said.
"For the patients, the current course means that they have to be prepared for longer waiting times and that their usual care is at risk."
The health system is under pressure: The reason is corona cases and staff problems.
Upper Bavaria in particular is badly affected.
