Hospitals and Corona: compulsory vaccination as a last resort – Bavaria

Even if only eight percent of the intensive care beds in Bavaria are currently occupied by Covid 19 patients and the so-called hospital traffic light is still on green: The regionally high incidence values ​​cannot be dismissed. On the Covid-19 dashboard of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Tuesday night, the first six places were exclusively Bavarian municipalities, led by the Berchtesgadener Land district with the nationwide highest seven-day incidence of 343.3 , followed by the Traunstein district with an incidence value of 304.8 and the Straubing-Bogen district with a value of 281.1. State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) emphasized on Tuesday after the cabinet meeting that this has not yet been alarming. But there is still a recognizable dynamic, with a regional focus in the south-east Bavarian region.

According to updated information from the DIVI bed register, 261 Covid 19 patients received intensive care in Bavaria’s hospitals on Tuesday afternoon, two more than the week before. The hospital traffic light would only turn yellow when the value was 1200, said Herrmann. So one is still relatively far removed from the limit values. At the moment, however, experts in the Ministry of Health are working intensively on a new recommendation for action for Bavaria’s clinics.

“Right now it’s a very hot box.”

As a current circular shows, the ministry is planning stricter requirements for hospitals and for preventive and rehabilitation facilities in the Free State in order to prevent the transmission of the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen in the patient area as far as possible. Accordingly, the 3-G rule should apply from now on to both employees and volunteers with patient contact. If neither a vaccination nor a convalescence nor a corresponding test certificate can be provided, access to the facility should be denied to both the employee and the volunteer.

Officially, the individual clinics in the Free State are still reluctant to comment on the tightening of security requirements. Last week, however, it was said behind closed doors: “At the moment this is a very hot box.” It is also hot because some hospitals do not even know at the moment where to get the staff for more corona tests. In some places, due to a lack of skilled workers, patient beds available can no longer be occupied. Other clinics, on the other hand, had a problem with the fact that they were only reimbursed for the material costs in these tests.

Other hospitals, especially the large ones, have been using comprehensive testing for a long time – with the exception of only emergency patients, for whom every minute counts. The problem was on what legal basis it is possible to regulate access to the house so strictly. In addition, it could not be overlooked: the regulations differed from clinic to clinic, causing confusion or even barely suppressed anger. From Nuremberg, for example, the SZ received an email in which a patient complained about “German obedience being too hasty”. An accusation that meets with incomprehension in the Ministry of Health. The individual hospitals are not only entitled, but even obliged to “develop a facility-specific protection and hygiene concept for visits and to observe this”.

“Strict implementation of the 3-G rule”

The bottom line is that hospitals in Bavaria have so far made the decision at their own discretion whether they consider proof of a test to be necessary. In principle, however, in the opinion of the Ministry of Health, patients should be granted low-threshold access to treatment in hospitals. “It should be noted, however, that inpatients in need of treatment usually represent a vulnerable group of people who need appropriate protection,” it said on Tuesday.

The recommendation for action that Bayern’s clinics are eagerly awaiting is still being processed. “A final version is not yet available,” said a ministry spokesman when asked. But it must also be clear that the recommendation for action is “not a binding obligation”. Meanwhile, the state medical association is also putting pressure on it. At the weekend, the delegates at the Bavarian Doctors’ Day demanded by resolution: Both the federal government and the state government have to “pay particular attention to and regulate the protection of employees and patients in the health care system”. A “strict implementation of the 3G regulation” is one of the effective protective measures against Sars-CoV-2. Andreas Botzlar, Vice President of the Chamber, can even imagine the introduction of mandatory vaccination for hospital employees as an “ultima ratio” if incentives to vaccinate do not help.

.
source site