Hospitals
Several thousand fewer intensive care beds since the beginning of the year
A patient suffering from Covid-19 in a room in the specially protected part of an intensive care unit. Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
According to doctors, around 4,000 intensive care beds have been lost in Germany. Reason: Many nurses have finished their jobs or reduced their working hours. What happens if the corona numbers continue to rise?
According to doctors, Germany has lost around 4,000 intensive care beds since the beginning of the year.
The reason for this is that many nurses have ended their jobs or reduced their working hours because of the stress, said the President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi), Gernot Marx, at “MDR Aktuell”. It will be possible to care for all Covid 19 patients. “But if the numbers go up significantly again, we will cancel operations again. Of course, that’s not what we want. “
With around 1,600 Covid 19 patients in the intensive care units, the situation is currently manageable, Marx said. However, it is known that the virus will spread again in autumn and winter. Accordingly, an increase is expected in winter. “That worries us.” Divi had already announced on Thursday that 22,207 intensive care beds were currently reported as operational, at the beginning of the year there were 26,475.
With a view to the expiry of the corona emergency in Germany targeted by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), Marx said: “There is a high risk that the speed of infections can increase significantly.” Therefore, appropriate measures are definitely needed. These would have to be decided politically. The most important measures that citizens could implement are still «vaccination, distance, hygiene rules».