"Desperate act": Nursing associations break up Lauterbach's clinic plan
Created: 12/15/2022, 5:05 am
By: Kai Hartwig
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's plans have met with sharp criticism from the nursing associations.
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
There is a state of emergency in many children's wards.
Minister of Health Lauterbach wants to reassign nursing staff.
Nursing associations, on the other hand, are up in arms.
Munich – The situation in the children's wards in German hospitals and clinics is tense.
Due to a variety of respiratory diseases in young patients, the wards are overloaded.
The staff is scarce or in many places already too few.
The care sector, which has been overburdened for years, is once again reaching its limits – and beyond.
A doctor found drastic words for the dramatic situation in the children's wards.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach responded with an emergency plan.
Lauterbach wants to withdraw staff from adult to children's wards - nursing associations are up in arms
The SPD politician announced that he would withdraw nursing staff from adult wards to use them in children's wards.
In the case of the nursing associations, the enthusiasm about it is limited, rather there is strong criticism.
"You can only describe it as an act of desperation," said Christine Vogler, President of the German Nursing Council (DPR), at the
editorial network Germany (RND)
.
“In the clinics, only the minimum care can already be secured.
We no longer have a station where nursing staff can be withdrawn.”
In principle, Lauterbach's planned transfer of nursing staff from adult to children's wards could not be implemented without further ado, said Vogler.
On the one hand, the nursing staff would have a professional basis through their training.
However, these do not automatically enable them to provide care in the intensive care area of a children's ward.
"This idea that nursing professionals with their qualifications could be used anywhere in special departments is a misguided thought in the population that must stop," warned the DPR President.
Nursing associations criticize the Lauterbach plan as "unreasonable" and fear "employment flight"
Lauterbach's clinic plan also envisages temporarily suspending the lower limits of nursing staff in order to defuse the situation in the children's wards.
From the point of view of the German Professional Association for Nursing Professions (DBfK), such an approach would be "unreasonable", confirmed its chairman Christel Bienstein to the
RND
.
"The lower limits are the red line that marks the minimum supply," she pointed out.
Its purpose is also to ensure the safety of hospital patients.
If these are deleted, this could also have fatal consequences for the nursing staff, according to the DBfK boss.
"Having to provide care below this minimum would therefore also be an enormous imposition on colleagues - with all the consequences that result from this, including fleeing from work," warned Bienstein.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health is also planning a “revolution” in the hospitals.
With a three-stage system, Lauterbach wants to achieve better patient care and secure the clinics economically.
