Influenza, RSV virus and corona: the number of infections is increasing. Nevertheless, 30 percent of the cots are canceled because there is a lack of nursing staff.
“The situation is quite worrying.” Munich’s health officer Beatrik Zurek (SPD) speaks in particular of the current situation in Munich’s children’s hospitals. The number of children infected with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is very high and the children’s intensive care units are reaching the “capacity limit”.
The outgoing managing director of Munich Clinic (Mük), Axel Fischer, can only confirm this at the meeting of the health committee on Thursday. Attempts are being made to postpone all operations that can be planned, to involve parents in the care of their children and, if necessary, to accommodate children in other wards.
No Munich-specific situation. The situation throughout Bavaria is “acute”, as Zurek says. 30 percent of the cots in the state capital are currently “deregistered” due to the shortage of nursing staff. Another reason: the long-standing underfunding in pediatric and adolescent medicine. “We must not allow sick children to be sent to distant hospitals, treated in the hospital corridor or, in the worst case, treated too late,” says third mayor Verena Dietl (SPD).
Your criticism goes to the federal government: New financing models would have to be developed and pediatric and youth medicine would have to be removed from the case-based payment system. “Children are not small adults,” emphasizes Hannah Gerstenkorn (Green Party). “Paediatrics urgently needs to be set up differently.”
1000 influenza cases were reported in the past week
The influenza virus is also doing its part to ensure that the situation in the hospitals remains tense. According to Zurek, 1,000 cases were reported in the past week. The peak from 2017 and 2018 has “already been reached”. Normally, maximum values are usually only recorded “at the beginning of the year”. And: There is also Corona. The numbers are rising again. Which is also reflected in the occupancy of the intensive care beds. 25 are currently occupied in the hospitals.
Corona, RSV and influenza virus. The Mük managing director calls the current situation an “infection pandemic”. 8,000 corona patients have been cared for in Munich since the beginning of the pandemic, 4,000 this year alone. “The fact that the numbers are now rising again makes me a little nervous,” says Fischer. He refers to the still high level of sick leave among the staff and looks from Munich to Berlin: There, the Charité is saying that all operations that can be planned are canceled by the end of the year due to a shortage of staff.