Control center sends SOS

Created: 12/19/2022, 06:00

By: Hans Moritz

Layman resuscitation: The dispatchers help with resuscitation up to 30 times a month on the phone.

© Shutterstock

The shortage of staff in the clinics and the associated blocking of beds is also increasingly getting the emergency services and the Erding Integrated Control Center (ILS) into trouble. 

Erding - "The search for a bed continues to be difficult because the clinics are very busy and the time-consuming search for treatment places places enormous demands on the personnel capacities," reported ILS manager Hubert Maier in the association for rescue services and fire brigade alarms (ZRF).

Nevertheless, the cooperation with the rescue services is “trustworthy and based on partnership at all times”.

Even during the pandemic, BRK, Malteser, Johanniter and other organizations repeatedly had the problem that emergency rooms were canceled due to overload.

The result: The emergency vehicles then have to travel farther to the nearest hospital and are not available for further operations during this time.

However, Maier gave the all-clear for the IS itself: It currently has enough applicants for vacancies.

However, according to Maier, "the number of deployments has risen again in the current year".

The head of the ILS had a remarkable number for the association councils: the dispatchers instruct callers to carry out resuscitation in 25 to 30 cases per month.

Another problem that the ZRF has had to deal with for almost a year shows how well the health system is sewn to the edge: the lack of emergency doctors.

At the association meeting, it was said that efforts to recruit additional emergency physicians would continue in order to be able to close gaps in care.

The emergency doctor spokesman for the districts of Erding, Ebersberg and Freising, the ZRF and the medical director of the rescue service worked closely together.

The deficiency first became public in April.

As reported, it was so big around Christmas last year that individual locations had to be temporarily deregistered.

In the Dorfen area, there were 178 unoccupied hours in February alone, and the occupancy rate fell to 73.5 percent.

In the Freising area it was 77.6 percent (150 unoccupied hours) and in Moosburg 90.7 percent (62 hours).

The supply in February was only good at the Ebersberg (100%), Eching (99.7%) and Erding (98.2%) sites.

The emergency doctor profession is considered by many physicians to be unattractive due to the working conditions with on-call times and meager attendance fees.

According to ZRF Managing Director Barbara Weinmann, the problem exists throughout Bavaria.

In extreme cases, emergency doctors have to be flown in by helicopter.

In the ZRF area, there are still gaps in the legally prescribed twelve-minute assistance period.

The association has commissioned a detailed analysis, the results of which are not yet available.

There are problems in the Moosburg/Nandlstadt area, among others.

After digital radio, the introduction of digital alarms is now on the rise.

The technical conversion of the control center has been completed, and the "beeper" infrastructure will be created in the first half of 2023.

The changeover will take place from the third quarter.

Initially, the analog alarm will also be maintained.

And: The planning for the new building of the control center is underway.

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