Several experts from the field of intensive care medicine, including the President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), Uwe Janssens, warn of corona-related supply bottlenecks in hospitals due to a lack of personnel. Free intensive care beds and ventilation places do not seem to be the problem at the moment, but free capacities of nursing staff to take care of the seriously ill. According to that then in 14 days approximately, if the infection happening would develop as at present, according to DIVI president 3,500 to 4,000 care workers were missing, that reports the spark group of media, because a Covid 19 patient in the intensive care unit needs the care of a specialist. Gerald Gaß, President of the German Hospital Association (DKG), also views the whole thing with great concern, should six to nine percent of those infected today need a hospital bed. Then hospitals would have to act by reassigning personnel or concentrating on more urgent cases, he explains. This also means that waiting times in regular care would again become longer, as in spring 2020, and that patients might have to be transferred if other hospitals were less burdened than the clinic where the Covid-19 patient was admitted. However, Claudia Schmidtke, the German government’s patient representative, also warns against neglecting other emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes for fear of the corona virus, which could have dire consequences for those affected.
Source: www.kma-online.de