The Air Force, which has been in action with its “flying intensive care units” since Friday to fly corona patients from overburdened hospitals to other parts of Germany, warns against expectations that are too high. “The Bundeswehr is making its contribution, but our resources are also limited,” said Tilmann Moll, Chief Aviation Doctor of the Air Force Süddeutsche Zeitung. He described the need for transport capacities these days as “overwhelming”, but pointed out that the Air Force must continue to ensure that wounded soldiers can be brought back from missions abroad at any time.
“We have to keep an aircraft in constant readiness as part of the rescue chain for soldiers on missions abroad. Because something could happen there too, and that is our core mission,” explained Moll. It was only in the summer that there were twelve wounded Bundeswehr soldiers in Mali when terrorists attacked a convoy.
On Tuesday, the so-called cloverleaf concept for the strategic transfer of intensive care patients to less polluted federal states was activated. The Bundeswehr with its rescue planes should also play a role in this. According to the Ministry of Defense, three planes and a helicopter are available for this.
The machine must be disinfected after every flight
On Friday the Air Force Airbus A310 Hermann Koehler six intensive care patients admitted to the Bavarian town of Memmingen to take them to Münster-Osnabrück Airport in North Rhine-Westphalia. From there, they are to be distributed to hospitals in the region that still have capacities. They are also equipped with intensive care beds A400M-Transport machine (six intensive care places), one A319 (two intensive care places) as well as a helicopter of the type CH-53 (two). However, it is hardly possible to set up a kind of daily shuttle operation. After such a mission, it takes about twelve hours to disinfect the aircraft and prepare it for the next mission.
As in the hospitals, the personnel is the limiting factor in the Air Force. “The staff who look after the intensive care patients in the aircraft – doctors and nurses – are already busy coping with the pandemic on a day-to-day basis, namely in the intensive care units of our Bundeswehr hospitals,” explained Oberstarzt Moll. The clinics are open to all citizens. “We are also reaching our limits when it comes to staff, our hospitals are also running at full capacity.”
The deployment also poses new challenges for the Bundeswehr: “If soldiers are wounded in action, they can be seriously injured. But as a rule, the lungs are not so affected,” said Moll. A doctor could take care of three to four seriously injured people on the plane. “With Covid, this is possible for a maximum of two intensive care patients in air transport. In addition, there is the necessary large team of assistants and nurses who do the main work.”
Transport is also a burden for the sick. “Flying is exhausting for the patient, even when he is under anesthesia,” explained the doctor. The seriously ill can be transported, but they have to be stabilized. “Not every patient is suitable for air transport.” With Covid, the condition of the patient could change in a short time. The air force is preparing for an increasingly difficult mission.