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Germany's clinics are reaching their limits in view of the increasing stress caused by the pandemic.

“In individual countries like Saxony, the number of intensive care patients is five times as high as in April.

Clinics there are reaching their capacity limits or have already exceeded them, ”warns Gerald Gaß, President of the German Hospital Society (DKG) in WELT AM SONNTAG.

According to the DKG, there are currently 40 percent more Covid-19 intensive care patients in the ward than during the first wave of the pandemic in spring.

In addition, there would be around 16,000 Covid 19 cases that would be treated on normal wards.

"These have a significantly higher level of care than other patients," says Gaß.

In contrast to the spring, when smaller, less well-equipped clinics were usually able to transfer their seriously ill Covid-19 patients to maximum care providers such as university hospitals without any problems, these are now approaching the limit themselves in some regions.

“We can still accept patients from the smaller hospitals.

But we have to stretch ourselves a lot, especially since we want to continue to take care of other patients, "says Gernot Marx, who heads the Clinic for Operative Intensive Care Medicine at the University Clinic in Aachen and from the turn of the year also heads the German Interdisciplinary Association as President for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI).

In view of staff shortages, taking on such patients is becoming increasingly difficult.

"It is not the intensive care beds that are the limiting factor, but the appropriately qualified staff," he warns.

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The clinics also defended themselves against criticism against WELT AM SONNTAG, according to which they would dramatize the situation in order to force more financial aid.

"We clearly reject the accusation of alarmism," said DKG President Gaß.

The reintroduction of the so-called free flat rates for intensive care beds by January is the right step, but because of the "very restrictive allocation criteria" it will only be an effective help for a few clinics.

However, many more hospitals would have to restrict their standard care because of Covid-19, which threatened revenue shortfalls and liquidity problems, he warned.

"It is also clear that we will run into problems if we do not manage to reduce the number of infections accordingly."

You can read all of the research in WELT AM SONNTAG.

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Source: Welt am Sonntag