The situation in the children's hospitals is catastrophic

Created: 11/30/2022 3:43 p.m

Pediatrician Prof. Florian Hoffmann warns of collapse © Mike Auerbach

Seriously ill children lie in the corridors, those responsible do not know how to proceed.

"We currently have catastrophic conditions in the children's hospitals," says Prof. Florian Hoffmann, senior physician in the children's intensive care unit in the Hauner Children's Hospital of the Ludwigs Maximilians University in Munich and Secretary General of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI). 

Because the number of respiratory diseases in children is rising steeply.

And because of the massive shortage of nursing staff and the resulting dramatic reduction in bed capacities in children's hospitals and children's intensive care units, it could soon be that not all children can be cared for.

The massive increase in infections with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was already apparent in the summer.

"Now clinics are not only faced with a large number of children and families seeking help, but also children with more serious illnesses," says Prof. Christoph Klein, Director of the Hauner Children's Hospital.

"Many children need oxygen therapy and sometimes even further invasive ventilation," says Prof. Hoffmann.

Because of the lack of beds, more and more acutely life-threatening children have to be transported to hospitals hundreds of kilometers away.

The lack of qualified nursing staff has also become so much worse because the specialized training in pediatric nursing was abolished in the course of the nursing education reform, clinic director Prof. Klein sounds the alarm.

"Especially in urban centers like Munich, children's hospitals can often no longer accept children, although there are actually empty beds that cannot be operated," complains the children's hospital director.

"So the only thing that remains is to overcrowd wards, which means that the nursing staff is overburdened and the nurses have to work until they are exhausted," says Prof Hoffmann.

In addition, children would have to be supplied with oxygen for up to two days in the emergency room.

“The parents sit next to them, sleep on a bunk at night until there is a bed somewhere,” says Prof Hoffmann: “Be it 150 kilometers away, where we have to transport the seriously ill child in the ambulance.

A condition that is very difficult to bear,” says Prof. Hoffmann.

He is afraid of the coming weeks if the numbers continue to rise: "France has already declared a national emergency.

I dread what might await us.”

SUSANNE SASSE

These are the warning signs that parents should urgently see a doctor with their child:

Almost every child experiences respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection.

All age groups can get sick.

But especially in the little ones, an RSV infection can be acutely life-threatening, explains pediatric intensive care physician Prof. Florian Hoffmann.

Especially in infants in their first year of life and children with chronic diseases, the respiratory disease can be so severe that it has to be treated in hospital.

RSV infection can lead to bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the small bronchi.

The mucous membranes swell and mucus forms, making it difficult for the child to breathe.

Even pneumonia can develop

If the following alarm signs appear, parents should urgently consult a pediatrician or, if necessary, an emergency room to prevent oxygen deficiency:

.

When a young child has obvious difficulty breathing and is breathing rapidly.

.

If it makes a whistling, crackling, or hissing sound when breathing out.

.

Parents should also take fever and cough seriously, but also if the child seems more exhausted than usual.

.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), it is worrying if there are problems with feeding, because RSV-infected children sometimes refuse to eat or drink or vomit.

According to the RKI, the reason why the current RSV wave is so dangerous for the little ones is that the children have not had any contact with the virus due to the corona protection measures and have therefore not been able to build up immune protection.

Normally, 50 to 70 percent become infected in the first year of life, and by the end of the second year almost all children have already had an RSV infection.