The fourth corona wave hit the hospitals in the south and east of the country with full force.

"We are on the verge of collapse," says Stefan Rath, the medical director of the Donau-Isar Clinic in Deggendorf.

From the other clinics in the area, from Traunstein, Mühldorf am Inn, Freyung and Sonneberg in Thuringia, it sounds similar: “It's like being in a nightmare that doesn't wake you up, it just keeps getting worse.” “We're standing absolutely on the wall.

You can also say that we are in the middle of an impact. "" We are collapsing. "

Corona patients occupy the intensive care units, often more than half, and many more beds in the houses.

Most of them are not vaccinated, some are also young, under 40 years of age, without previous illnesses.

For the hospitals this means a complete restructuring.

Because a corona patient needs significantly longer and more precise care than another patient.

Covid patients occupy twenty percent of the beds

He is isolated, which means that each carer may only approach him in full protection, with a hood, mask, double gloves. Dressing and undressing, increased observation ties up staff. But there is no such thing. Many nurses have quit in the last few months due to excessive demands, and with incidences over 1000, many are now sick themselves. The clinics in Sonneberg and Neuhaus treated around sixty corona patients at the beginning of the week. These patients occupied over twenty percent of the beds, but tied up about half of the remaining nursing staff. Because a third was reported sick.

Hospitals are closing entire wards so that their carers can be used for corona patients.

They pull the anesthesiologists out of the operating theaters because they have experience with ventilated and seriously ill people.

All operations that are not absolutely necessary are canceled - they even have to, because there are corresponding instructions in five of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria.

Those who are not paralyzed have to wait for surgery

Thomas Ewald, CEO of the Innklinikum Altötting und Mühldorf, says: “It is always written that these are 'interventions that can be postponed'.

They are not. ”They are the classic interventions, such as a hip operation.

Even operations for tumors are postponed unless they are life-threatening.

Postponing these interventions could therefore "also have negative long-term health consequences for some," says Ewald.

Some hospitals advise their patients: Find a clinic in northern Germany and you will get a bed.

Stefan Rath from Deggendorf says: “I have enough patients who say: I can't stand this pain any longer, I can't stand it!

But as long as you are not paralyzed, I cannot and must not operate on you. "

The surgeons have less work due to the canceled operations and are provided to the internists in Deggendorf on the corona wards.

"It's not just about beds: the whole structure of a hospital is shifting due to the pandemic," says Rath.