The situation in children's hospitals is coming to a head: Most are "so full that no more children can be admitted"
Created: 11/26/2022, 11:28 am
By: Christina Denk
The children's hospitals are currently struggling with a wave of RSV infections.
At the same time, the situation is exacerbated by a shortage of staff and beds.
Children have to drive up to 100 km for a free bed.
Dortmund – "Children's clinics are full to the brim everywhere!", Dominik Schneider, Director of the Dortmund Clinic, writes on Twitter.
The situation in the children's wards is getting worse.
The children's clinics were already overloaded in the last Corona autumn.
Now three factors make it difficult to treat the little ones.
Children sometimes have to travel up to 100 kilometers to get a free hospital bed.
Children's hospitals at the limit: medical president agrees parents on waiting times, transfers or cancellations
"Most of the time, the jacks are so full that no more children can be admitted and new cases have to be transferred to other clinics," explains Jörg Dötsch, President of the German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ) to the Funke media group .
Parents should be prepared for long waiting times, transfers or cancellations of treatments that can be postponed.
Children are driven across the country to use the last free beds.
Dominik Schneider, Director of the Dortmund Clinic, on the situation in the children's wards
Dominik Schneider from the Dortmund Clinic also reports to
Focus
about calls from distant German cities.
Some of these calls came from Bonn, 100 kilometers away.
"Children are driven across the country to use the last free beds," says the doctor.
Children's hospitals at the limit: wave of infections and declining number of beds make treatments more difficult
The reason for the tense situation is, on the one hand, a wave of infections among the children.
In addition to infections with the corona virus, infections with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are particularly noticeable.
Dötsch sees a "catching-up effect" after the corona protection measures.
These viruses and bacteria make us sick
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In addition to the wave of infections, the hospitals are also experiencing structural problems.
In the last thirty years, also with the introduction of the case-based flat-rate system in Germany, the number of children's hospitals has fallen by a fifth and the number of beds by a third.
At the same time, the number of children who have to be treated as inpatients has increased by around ten percent, according to Schneider.
The system has been repeatedly criticized for several years, especially in relation to children's hospitals.
Treatments for children are more time- and personnel-intensive and difficult to settle via case-based flat rates.
According to Der Spiegel, Karl Lauterbach plans to introduce surcharges.
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Children's hospitals at the limit: staff shortages make treatments even more difficult - "dilemma"
A lack of staff makes the situation in children's nursing particularly difficult.
In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, 1,500 trainees were missing, and there were around 3,000 across Germany, Schneider told the newspaper.
"As a clinic manager, I'm in a quandary: either reject children or fall below the minimum care limit regulation," says Schneider.
An easing of the situation, especially with regard to the virus wave, is not in sight, says Jörg Dötsch.
"We expect the situation to remain like this for quite a while," said the DGKJ President.
However, there was confusion about the Corona care bonus in Starnberg.
Because of a single case, the nurses got nothing there.
(chd/AFP)
