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“We can’t shut down the entire economy just so hospitals can do elective interventions!” In an interview with the “CH Media” newspapers, the SP Minister of Health, Alain Berset, puts the cantons on the sidewalk.
Because the corona pandemic threatens to overload hospitals. The scientific working group expects that, in the worst case, the capacity limits can be exceeded on November 8, that is, in just over a week.
For Berset, therefore, it is clear: elective operations that are not medically necessary can wait. “The cantons should finally postpone all unnecessary interventions.” This also applies to the cantons, where the situation is not yet so tense.
The cantons decide for themselves
To control the second wave, the Federal Council tightened the screw again on Wednesday. Unlike spring, elective interventions are not prohibited. This prohibition would be the responsibility of the cantons. In some cases they have already done so, for example Vaud. However, not all.
Elective surgery is still possible in many places. The canton of Zurich renounced the ban, as the Zurich government adviser Natalie Rickli (43) explained to the media on Friday. However, this does not mean that everything is possible in Zurich: hospitals divide patients and decide for themselves which treatments they continue to carry out.
Earn only 32 hours
But despite the Federal Council’s warnings: Hospitals, regardless of electoral interventions, will reach their limits of capacity, as Martin Ackermann, chairman of the scientific working group, said on Friday. “The resignation does not solve the problem.” The task force has calculated what an additional 200 intensive care beds would do if growth stayed the same – a time savings of just 32 hours. (gbl)
