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Ludwigsburg (dpa / lsw) - The Baden-Württemberg coordinator for intensive medical care for Covid patients is calling for a hard lockdown in order to reduce the pressure on the clinics. "The development is worrying because by the end of April we will probably achieve an occupancy rate of 40 percent in intensive care beds with Covid sufferers," said Götz Geldner, medical director of the Ludwigsburg RKH clinics, of the German press agency. Now come the "Easter victims", patients who have been infected at meetings over the holidays. In view of staff shortages, he suggested a more performance-based pay for nurses.
About a third of the intensive care beds are occupied by Covid patients. The currently largest group, people between 45 and 65 years of age, also stay longer on the wards than the younger age group. That is why it will be tight for other intensive care patients and emergencies, who need around 60 percent of the capacity. At the moment, the level of care for patients is still at a high level.
The intensive care doctor emphasized that there would be no way around tougher measures to contain the infections.
The incisions should no longer be justified with the location of the intensive care.
"This is the worst consequence of the pandemic - we must not wait for it to happen."
The R value, which indicates how many other people an infected person infects, is also meaningful.
If it is below 1 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
As an example of a successful shutdown, he named Portugal with the temporarily highest number of infections in the world in January based on population;
The country had got the situation under control with a 24-hour curfew, general mask requirements and an extensive home office obligation for employers.
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The service union Verdi is also calling on politicians to no longer justify the measures with the intensive care beds. These are not a suitable indicator, since the number of infections is only reflected in their occupancy after several weeks. From Verdi's point of view, an 85 percent occupancy does not mean that 15 percent of the beds are still available with optimal therapy options. More and more often there is a lack of qualified and experienced staff - especially in intensive care medicine. According to data from the Divi intensive care register, around 88.6 percent of the approximately 2,417 operable intensive care beds in the country are occupied.
Verdi health expert Irene Gölz sees the clinic staff with their backs to the wall.
"We now have to manage in such a way that the employees can still help us if we are admitted to the clinic as an emergency."
The mutant has exacerbated the situation on the wards: "Every second ventilated patient does not survive the disease."
More than every second of the approximately 500 intensive care patients in the country is ventilated according to the state health office.
According to Geldner, the number of ventilation places is used up to 92 percent depending on the clinic.
According to coordinator Geldner, between April 1 and April 11, 57 patients in Baden-Württemberg were transferred from one hospital to another, on the one hand because of a lack of space and on the other hand because of the greater expertise and equipment in another house.
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The Ludwigsburg doctor also sees the main reason for limited capacities in the staff.
On the one hand, many nurses give up because of the burden of caring for the serious Covid cases, others go into temporary work because higher salaries are paid there than in the public sector, as Geldner learned in-house.
He spoke out in favor of paying the nursing staff, which honors the care of the seriously ill.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210420-99-271885 / 2
RKH clinics
Divi intensive register