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Martin Balmer speaks in a calm, helpless voice; take a deep breath repeatedly. The doctor and head of intensive medicine at Aarau Cantonal Hospital is tired. Like so many healthcare workers. In an interview with SRF “Arena” host Sandro Brotz, he says: “I have never seen so many doctors and nurses cry”.
It wasn’t until yesterday, Friday, that Balmer and his team had to convert the recovery room of the cantonal hospital into an intensive care unit. Because the beds in the current ward were all full and the intensive care patients couldn’t move. The new intensive care unit is now occupied with four patients. But operated with the same staff.
Martin Balmer wears an apron and a FFP2 mask. In the intensive care unit, that’s the rule. “With these clothes you will be wet after 30 minutes,” he says.
Staff work double shifts
And he and his employees sometimes work double shifts in these clothes: “On Tuesday, we received three seriously ill Covid patients within an hour, each of whom used two caregivers for more than eight hours. I personally took a shift. But especially my colleagues who stay longer do it. “
This leaves staff with little time to relax. Physically and mentally, work is currently a huge burden. Balmer: “A lot of my colleagues can’t handle it emotionally anymore.”
Nurses and doctors at the limit of their possibilities. “They realize that they cannot achieve the quality they want to achieve in their work. Above all, they don’t see an end, ”explains Balmer.
Images of the Inselspital: This is what it really looks like at Corona station!(01:13)
“Don’t forget us!”
And if you look outside, you see people who still say that everything is a joke. They wear their mask under their nose. “They’re things that make us shake our heads, but they also make us sad and angry,” says Balmer.
Still, his people don’t give up. Not yet. «After the opening of the new intensive care unit, we wrote in the WhatsApp chat that we absolutely need people for the next ten days. In a few hours, we got all the feedback we needed from people who wanted to take over these services. “
When Sandro Brotz asks him what he would like to say to politics, Balmer replies: «Don’t forget us! Don’t forget what you see behind me in the video! Remember to comply with the protection measures. “(Ja)
