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The Schwyz Hospital call for help was emotional: “Our isolation ward for Covid patients is getting more crowded every day and the proportion of patients requiring ventilation is increasing.” Hospital officials called on the population to better adhere to the crown’s protective measures. On Sunday, Wallis Hospital also warned of a “dramatic overload” by Covid 19 patients in Lower Valais.
The number of cases in Switzerland also increased significantly over the weekend: from Friday to Sunday, the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) reports 8,737 coronavirus infections in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as 171 hospital admissions and 14 deaths. In a European comparison, Switzerland is also in a bad position.
Are hospitals now threatened with overload again? Is there an emergency scenario?
There are currently enough intensive care beds
Michael Jordi, general secretary of the Day of Health Directors (GDK), gives the go-ahead for the moment. “Despite the increasing number of cases and hospitalizations, the situation in intensive care units is still not worrying,” he tells BLICK.
The latest figures from the Armed Forces Coordinated Medical Service show that he is right: around 600 Covid 19 patients are currently being treated in hospitals across Switzerland. More than 100 are in intensive care, most of them in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva.
There are currently no signs of a national bottleneck. Jordi is convinced that the cantons and hospitals have learned from the experience of the first wave and are prepared for a new increase: “In the cantons of Bern and Zurich, for example, there is a prioritization in which hospitals are treated for patients patients with Covid “. There are also contracts for intensive care services between small and large cantons so that patients can be cared for in crisis situations.
Schwyz Hospital sounds the alarm: “The development is dramatic”(01:54)
“Not critical” even in Bern
So the hospitals are armed. At the Zurich University Hospital, for example, three corona patients are currently cared for in the intensive care unit and 17 in normal wards. The capabilities of Covid-19 patients could be “increased again in a short time,” says University Hospital spokeswoman Barbara Beccaro. And: “For the relevant areas and processes, including the intensive care unit, there are plans for gradual expansion of capacities if necessary.”
Hospital overload is also not in sight in Aargau at the moment. “There is still a lot of capacity in the intensive care beds,” says canton doctor Yvonne Hummel.
In turn, the canton of Bern is experiencing strong growth in hospitalizations: the number has doubled to 82 in one week. Currently, 12 Covid patients are in intensive care. However, the current figures from the Berne health system “are not critical”, says Secretary General of the Health Directorate Yves Bichsel. But: “Further growth over several weeks would be very problematic.”
Geneva’s university hospitals have already started the first stage of their four-stage Covid action plan. There are currently 117 beds available for Covid patients, an expansion to 367 beds is possible, with up to 56 intensive care beds. Also, Covid 19 patients should be better distributed in French-speaking Switzerland. The cantons of western Switzerland are setting up a unit managed by the Chuv University Hospital in Lausanne, which coordinates patient transfers if a hospital’s intensive care unit is full.
Postpone operations
The deciding factor is how the situation develops over the next few weeks. GDK Secretary Jordi sees the problem not only with Covid patients. “The most sensitive point is when you have to reduce operations that are not urgent in patients who are not Covid,” he says. “If Covid hospitalizations increase, hospitals have to free up capacity with a waiting time of two to three weeks. That is a great challenge. “
Especially since more and more elderly Covid patients must be treated in hospitals. Therefore, it is clear: “In the coming weeks, the prioritization and postponement of less urgent operations must refocus.”
Lower Valais hospitals have already reacted: to increase bed capacity for Covid-19 cases, resources for planned interventions must be reduced and 4 of the 13 operating rooms must be closed.
