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In a few weeks, the number of ICU patients is expected to exceed the record set in April, said the director of the German Hospital Federation. Medical experts also warned of exhausted staff and diminished attention span.
German hospitals are expected to see a record number of patients receiving intensive care due to the latest surge in new coronavirus infections, the head of the German Hospitals Federation, Gerald Gass, said in an interview on Monday.
“In two to three weeks, we will exceed the highest number of intensive care patients seen in April, and we can no longer avoid that,” Gass told Mass-Circulation. image Newspaper. “Anyone who enters the hospital in three weeks is already infected today. Unfortunately, that is the realistic forecast. “
Also, medical personnel working in other areas are expected to be transferred to intensive care units, he said. “Of course this is not ideal, but it may be justified in such an exceptional situation.”
Spring ‘less dramatic’ than now
Other medical professionals have echoed Gass’s sentiment, calling for stronger countermeasures to curb infections and ease tension in hospitals.
“Very clearly, there is not much space in some federal states,” Uwe Janssens, president of the German Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, told Bild am Sonntag.
“Berlin only has 14% of its intensive care beds available and Bremen 17%. The situation in the spring was much less dramatic than what awaits us now. “
Germany’s Commissioner for Nursing Care Andreas Westerfellhaus called on people to postpone any plans that might be postponed and warned of nursing staff burnout.
“Many intensive care nurses are already working to the limit and have rightly warned of a deteriorating situation,” Westerfellhaus told Bild. If countermeasures are not taken now, Germany could see hospital conditions similar to those in Italy during the first wave, he added.
Meanwhile, Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans has called the situation “terrifying and alarming”.
“Soon, many of the 1,900 hospitals in Germany could collapse,” Hans said.
Questions about accurate data
Experts have also cited questions about the actual number of beds available, as not all hospitals are equipped with enough staff to provide care despite having bed capacity. As of the end of last week, more than 7,500 intensive care beds were still available.
However, “many hospitals register available beds, which are free but cannot be used due to lack of staff,” Christian Karagiannidis, spokesman for the intensive care registry, told Welt am Sonntag.
“We are lulling ourselves into a false sense of security when it comes to the number of free intensive care beds,” Karagiannidis said.
Karin Maag, a health policy spokesperson for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, also demanded more precise figures on available beds. If a clinic reports a specific number of available intensive care beds, this must also be supported by sufficient staff, he said. “I want to be able to trust the statements.”
Germany entered a partial month-long lockdown on Monday, following record records of new infections. Under the new measures, bars, restaurants and gyms are closed while travel within the country is heavily restricted. The country has registered more than 552,000 cases and more than 10,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
