Gradually, normality should return to the German hospital routine. In any case, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn has just instructed his colleagues in the federal states that from May onwards only 25 per cent of the intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients that have been kept free since mid-March will have to be blocked, because originally the aim was to keep 50 per cent of the capacity of the intensive care beds free for corona emergencies, partly with artificial respiration. However, the Minister has now decided not to make use of this provision, as reported by the German Redundancy Network (RND) according to information from the BMG, because parts of the hospital capacities must be available for plannable operations that had to be postponed, such as urgent tumour and hip operations, the postponement of which has led to uncertain outcomes and has caused health and psychological problems for patients. However, Spahn points out that clinics and hospitals are now faced with a possibly difficult balancing act, in which emergency care is contrasted with the care of corona infected patients. At present, even in emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes, patients come to the clinics too late for fear of the virus. In a first step, 70 per cent of the surgical beds are now to be opened up for plannable operations so that patients can return to the standard care of the past. According to the RND’s report, it will then be checked every two weeks, depending on the dependence of the infectious event, whether further surgical capacities can be made available for postponed operations after the minister had called for the suspension of plannable operations in mid-March in the fight against the corona pandemic.
