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In an open letter to Berlin Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD), the twelve district medical officers strictly distanced themselves from their course to deal with the crown crisis. According to the letter, which is available exclusively at the Tagesspiegel and was sent on Wednesday afternoon, the health authorities were not consulted or involved in any way regarding “measures planned in advance from a specialized medical point of view.”
“We only learned about the traffic light system and the so-called ‘test strategy’ from the press,” he continues. Therefore, the health authorities were unable to answer the population’s questions, which would provoke “irritations, expectations and uncertainties”.
The letter also says: “As medical officers, we rely on evidence-based decisions and scientific recommendations, such as those from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and medical associations.” On this basis, the health authorities would work successfully, as evidenced by the follow-up of the contact persons and the directed smear strategy in accordance with the RKI recommendation.
“We reject undirected testing without a medical indication,” medical officials explain ahead of Kalayci’s plans, adding: “Even the stoplight system that was publicly released Tuesday is medically incomprehensible to us.”
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With the Corona traffic light, the Senate wants to assess the spread of the virus more reliably than with a pure upper limit for new infections. Doctors ask for a “professionally justified general strategy”, which is necessary for acceptance in the Berlin population.
Announcing more tests, without saying how to do it
The letter had been unanimously agreed and approved at a conference of all district medical officers held Wednesday morning. Deep down, it was said that the situation had “escalated a long time ago” because in the senator’s vicinity, the truth no longer had primacy.
Medical officials feared they would be “dragged into misery.” It has been brewing between them for a long time, especially the lack of communication by the health administration is criticized. “We are not involved at all,” says a medical officer. Recently, Kalayci’s announcement had caused disgust at trying much more.
She did not say how that should be done. However, the districts are already feeling the consequences of the declaration because people first turned to health authorities, but there was still no solution to massively increase the tests. “We have to pay what the Senate administration decides,” an official doctor told Tagesspiegel.
“Neither based on evidence nor agreed”
From the physician’s point of view, decisions are often “not based on evidence or discussed in any way.” The Senate Health Department would even try to pressure medical officers and pit individual districts against each other.
Individual medical officials would be significantly addressed in three-week conference calls with the health administration. For example, the Mitte and Neukölln districts were praised by the Senate Department for their test routes, and other districts were pressured to establish their own locations; conditions in the districts were very different, according to the medical officer.
For this reason too, the main epidemics of the districts have now decided on another joint letter, the first having already been in March.
“All medical officers have the same goal, but the ways to get there are sometimes different, and that’s fine,” says another medical officer.
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Recently, there have been repeated criticisms of Kalayci’s work within the coalition. At the start of the crisis, it was said that it had failed to comply with legal regulations, such as closing clubs and bars quickly enough, but a strategy to expand the crown tests announced weeks ago is lagging behind. The Senate suspended the issue last Tuesday. An agreement will be reached next week.
Tim-Christopher Zeelen, health spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, used the doctor’s official letter to strongly criticize the senator. “It is completely incomprehensible to me why the senator does not involve medical officers in decisions,” Zeelen said, adding: “After Kalayci has not involved the hospital society, the medical association, and the medical association for weeks, Medical officials repeat the same mistakes again. “
