Intensive care units: "The situation is currently not really dramatic"

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The number of infections in Germany is increasing - and yet the head of Germany's largest hospital chain, Helios, currently sees no reason to panic.

"The situation is not really dramatic at the moment, even if our large hospitals in particular are now treating a large number of Covid patients again," said Francesco De Meo in an interview with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" regarding occupied intensive care beds.

Overall, the number of cases would be below what the hospitals had to cope with in the second Corona wave in winter.

At the beginning, the discussion turned to hospital beds as a whole, later to the staff and currently to the intensive care capacities, says De Meo.

“I think we should look at the whole picture.

And I don't think there is much point in frightening people as long as we are on the level of the second wave, ”he warned.

The Helios houses currently supply around 15,000 patients without Covid-19 in normal wards and a good 750 with Covid-19.

There are almost 1150 patients without Covid-19 and almost 330 patients with Covid-19 in the intensive care units.

The association of intensive care physicians had struck much more drastic tones.

This is due to the different assessments of the facts, so De Meo.

“We know what is happening in hospitals in general and in all facets, and not just since the beginning of this pandemic.” The professional perception is that there have always been full intensive care units.

"This is nothing new," he said.

Moving patients to hospitals with spare capacity works well.

This is how the health system's clout stands and falls.

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Patients in Germany are often quickly transferred to the intensive care unit - one still has to see whether that also means better care. In Spain, where Helios also operates around 40 clinics, there are about as many corona infections as in Germany and the total number of treatments in hospitals is similar. However, there are three times as many Covid patients in the intensive care unit in Germany as in Spain. "Mortality will then be roughly the same in both countries," he said.