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In Berlin, the nursing staff shortage is getting worse. While the number of Covid-19 patients is increasing, clinics can recruit fewer specialists for the corresponding wards. Because hospitals often rely on leasing employees, they are now threatened with non-compliance.
According to information from Tagesspiegel, up to 20 percent of the caregivers deployed on a shift in Berlin belong to temporary employment agencies. Some of these agencies do not want their caregivers to work in wards that are at risk for Sars-Cov-2. Doctors and nursing service managers reported that individual leasing workers also said on their own account that they no longer wanted to be deployed in a Covid 19 room. Reservations are often canceled “on very short notice.”
According to the Senate, Berlin’s intensive care units are almost 90 percent full. Of the officially 1,217 intensive care beds, 1,130 are occupied. The proportion of coronavirus patients is around 30 percent with 362 patients. Additionally, 1,000 more Covid-19 patients are being treated as inpatients without having to go to an intensive care unit.
Most of Berlin’s Covid-19 patients are cared for by Vivantes state clinics, where corresponding cancellations by assigned nurses increased. Vivantes individual house managers noted six companies; temp agencies could not be reached on short notice over the weekend.
A spokeswoman for Vivantes said on request: “Due to the tense staffing situation, the loss of nursing staff can often only be compensated for through the use of leasing staff.” either they are not mediated or they do not come into service with very little notice ”. At the same time, permanent staff would be transferred to leasing companies, as the respective desired hours of work could be granted there with similar salaries. When booking, Vivantes now explicitly indicates if it is a shift in a room with coronavirus patients.
Vivantes and Charité attend serious cases of Covid-19
In addition to Vivantes, Charité de Berlin, which is also owned by the state, deals with the most serious cases of Covid-19. At the university clinic there had been a debate for the past several years about the use of assigned nurses. Only in-house nursing staff have been working in the Covid 19 wards since spring, a Charité spokesperson said on request, and due to the large number of cases, staffing is now being planned. There have not yet been any returns of orders from the temp agencies. Leasing workers are often insured through their companies. From an insurance perspective, infection risks are fundamentally a part of daily working life in the healthcare sector.
Vivantes and Charité are part of the Berlin Senate “Save” concept, which was developed for clinics with intensive care units in the fight against coronavirus and divides hospitals into three “tiers”. The Charité treats the most serious cases as Level I. Level II consists of 16 clinics, including the large Vivantes clinics, where lighter patients with Covid-19 are also treated.
Berlin needs 10,000 more nurses by 2030
There is also a shortage of staff at the Brandenburg clinics. As reported, hospitals in Lusatia are currently overloaded. The State Health Ministry is considering no longer concentrating Covid 19 cases in 26 clinics, but distributing them to more than 50 hospitals in Brandenburg. Across the region, clinics asked former nurses and part-time workers to report to emergency operations.
According to an analysis published by the Federal Employment Agency in 2019, there are 22,000 temporary workers in nursing in Germany and 12,000 in geriatric care; in Berlin-Brandenburg there should be about 4,000 leasing workers. Temporary work agencies specializing in nursing staff expected growing demand in March, when the pandemic also hit Germany. After the Berlin Senate ruled in March to postpone planned treatments, and the number of new infections has steadily declined since May, hardly any nurses were needed.
Senator Kalayci wants to stop leasing in care
More than 40,000 nurses work in Berlin clinics, homes and outpatient services, but there are more trained staff. Numerous studies have made it clear that many nurses change jobs after a few years. They cite time pressure, alternate shifts, and low pay as reasons for this. In view of the growth and aging of the population, it is estimated that 10,000 additional skilled workers will be needed in Berlin alone in the next ten years.
Because rental workers are more difficult to plan, because they can “pick” certain shifts and stations in the care market, the Berlin Senate is planning a Federal Council initiative. Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) presented them to the Federal Council in March. There the role was transferred to the committees that stopped in the crisis of the crown.
The Federal Association of Employers of Personnel Service Providers, on the other hand, had stated that temporary work in nursing had even decreased in 2018, and that staff were being switched to leasing companies precisely because of better working conditions.
The boards of directors of Charité and Vivantes have called for strict lockdown rules due to staff shortages. Two weeks ago, Vivantes doctors had considered imposing a freeze on admissions at one of Germany’s largest hospitals. The Neukölln Vivantes Clinic, whose emergency room is one of the most important in the capital region, also treats many cases of Covid 19. Seven other hospitals from different companies reported that their intensive care units were occupied.
