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Care of a corona patient in an intensive care unit at the University Hospital Essen: five nurses for only one ventilated Covid-19 patient
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Fabian Strauch / dpa
According to the central registry office for intensive care beds in Germany, there are fewer free and ready-to-use intensive care places in hospitals than assumed.
"Nationwide, clinics report vacant beds as available, although some cannot be used at all because of the lack of staff," said the spokesman for the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi), Christian Karagiannidis, of "Welt am Sonntag".
And: "We are lulled into a false sense of security by the number of free intensive care beds."
The Divi keeps the register, which shows the current nationwide free intensive care beds every day.
This should also enable a transfer from heavily used clinics to houses with capacities.
However, the bed capacity alone is not decisive: a ventilated Covid 19 patient alone needs up to five nurses.
They are particularly lacking.
Divi urges clinics to be honest
Karagiannidis called on all clinics to "honestly" report their free beds.
"The number is the basis for political decisions," he warned.
"Some managing directors are not aware of the great social responsibility they are bearing with this report."
Divi represents more than 3,000 critical care physicians and nurses currently working in intensive care units.
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In the past two to three weeks, his organization has received more and more feedback from emergency doctors across Germany who said: "I have difficulties accommodating my patients in clinics, although the register in the region shows us dozens of free beds."
The reports were then randomly checked in individual clinics.
The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans also fears that the intensive capacities in German hospitals will not be sufficient during the corona pandemic.
"The situation is frightening and alarming: Many of the 1900 hospitals in Germany could soon collapse," said the CDU politician of "Bild am Sonntag".
Especially now, when every intensive care and ventilation place is urgently needed in the second corona wave, clinics are no longer being supplied, wards are being closed and emergency rooms are being canceled.
"The reason is missing or ill nursing staff."
Politics wants better distribution based on the "clover leaf principle"
The clinics urgently need support, said Hans.
"In addition to the staff shortage, the hospitals are threatened with financial collapse."
Therefore, as at the beginning of the pandemic, flat-rate fees should be paid "so that the clinics are financially secure in the coming weeks and months".
In addition, the federal government must initiate a "new and strong foster care program".
In order to delay a possible bottleneck in hospital capacities in Germany for as long as possible, the federal and state governments are currently working on a new concept.
It relies on the so-called "clover leaf principle".
According to this, intensive care patients should be distributed between the federal states according to a certain distribution principle if capacities are scarce - despite potentially long transport routes.
For this purpose, Germany is to be divided into five regions in which patient transport is to be organized centrally.
In the past few days, the first German clinics had sounded the alarm and warned of an imminent overload.
With new contact bans and the closure of entire industries, politicians are trying to get the infection rates under control in November.
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