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A nurse is setting up an intensive care unit in Lugano to treat more Covid-19 patients. Image: keystone
“Swiss intensive care beds full”: a message goes around the world: that’s how it really is
“All intensive care beds in Switzerland are full.” This message made headlines around the world yesterday. What’s behind?
This message went around the world yesterday. “Switzerland’s intensive care beds are full,” read the headline of the renowned New York Times. And the homepage of “Spiegel” also highlighted: “In Switzerland, all intensive care beds are occupied.”
The reason for the worldwide enthusiasm was the press release from the Swiss Society of Intensive Care Medicine SGI. It reported Tuesday that “certified and recognized intensive care beds” are used in full. The fact that the health system is not yet overloaded is mainly due to the fact that non-urgent interventions have been stopped. To further calm the situation, some intensive care units were also expanded, but not as many as in the first wave of spring.
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According to icumonitoring.ch, 543 Covid-19 patients were in intensive care units on Tuesday. In addition, there are 359 patients who depend on intensive medical treatment for another reason. In reality, this would exceed the regular capacity limit of 876 intensive care beds.
Thanks to the expansion measures, 240 beds were available yesterday, including the necessary staff.
Use of Swiss intensive care units
According to the SGI report, there were bottlenecks at the regional level. In recent days, several critically ill patients had to be relocated to other cantons or even language regions due to lack of resources.
All these measures so far have prevented a national overload. However, this news is attracting international attention. In addition to the New York Times, the Washington Post reported on the matter.
(grass)
