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Is triage already taking place in Saxony, a situation where doctors have to decide who to help first? A statement from a clinic director causes a stir: the hospital sees intensive care medicine at its limits.
No federal state is currently as affected by the corona pandemic as Saxony, according to the Robert Koch Institute, the incidence of seven days per 100,000 inhabitants is currently 407.1, with serious effects on the health system.
Reports that the Oberlausitzer Bergland clinic medical director Mathias Mengel apparently spoke of triage in an online forum caused a stir. Triage means that medical professionals must decide who to help first due to limited resources.
A Deutschlandfunk reporter tweeted Tuesday that Mengel had said that the Zittau Clinic had already had to be examined several times. The reason is that there are very few ventilation beds.
“We had to decide who gets oxygen”
The doctor explained to the t-online news portal: “In recent days we have been several times in the situation where we had to decide who receives oxygen and who does not.”
Attempts will be made to transfer patients who are not being seen to another clinic, Mengel said. These are regularly transported to Leipzig and Dresden by helicopter, but not all patients are transportable, according to Mengel’s statement, according to Deutschlandfunk reporter Alexander Moritz.
Clinic: tense situation
Bergland-Klinikum management did not confirm reports of triage in corona patients, but did say the care situation was extremely tense.
Intensive care medicine is “reaching the limit of affordability,” said the provider, the Görlitz district health center. The capacity of the two specially configured corona infection stations of a total of 100 beds in the two clinic locations cannot be exhausted due to understaffing.
“The best possible therapy”
However, the center emphasized that all patients who arrive at the two hospitals receive “the best possible therapy.” If corona stations could no longer accept patients, the sick would be airlifted to surrounding hospitals. If that is no longer possible, the already tense situation will worsen significantly.
The Görlitz district is one of the crown hot spots in Germany. According to the Saxon Ministry of Social Affairs, the seven-day incidence there were more than 500 on Tuesday. According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), eight of the 52 intensive care beds are still available in the district (as of December 16, 2020). , 11:19 am).
Kretschmer speaks of a “cry for help”
Saxony Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer described the classification statements as a “cry for help”. Daily work in German hospitals is “extremely tense”. Protection measures make work difficult, there is a shortage of staff due to illness or quarantine.
At the same time, the CDU politician referred to “applicable medical and ethical standards.” After that, work will be done in Zittau and throughout Saxony. There are no Covid-19 rules that deviate from it. Medical treatment is always based on individual considerations.
Saxony Health Minister Petra Köpping said a “wake-up call” was launched in Zittau, and those responsible wanted to show: “Soon we will no longer know how to care for patients,” the SPD politician in Dresden said on the sidelines. of a debate in the state parliament. He couldn’t confirm the case itself, Köpping said.
Hans: “Seriously shortly before the overload”
Also from other regions of Germany we hear more and more often that the healthcare system is reaching its limits. Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans sees him “seriously on the verge of overload”.
Hospitals have reached “the limits of their resilience” and there are already “considerable bottlenecks” in nursing staff, he said in a government statement at the state parliament in Saarbrücken. “If we want to prevent too many people from dying, if we want to prevent our doctors and nurses from having to decide who to treat, we have to act now.”
The blockade now in force was therefore inevitable. “We have to hit the brakes now,” Hans emphasized. The goal is a seven-day incidence of 50 and less: “Only then will we have the pandemic under control.” And only then could the restrictions be relaxed again.
