It's not that Jessica Diehm didn't try. That she didn't bother to come to terms with it; didn't change anything before drawing the line. Diehm is 42 years old, she works as a nurse in the intensive care unit of a hospital somewhere in Bavaria. The fact that the corona pandemic has remained manageable so far is due to people like you. Around 4,900 Covid-19 patients are currently being treated in the intensive care units of German hospitals, almost as many as at the peak of the pandemic a year ago. But soon things will have to go in the hospital in Bavaria without the experienced specialist who knows every drawer in her ward and every button on the devices. It is still on the clinic's salary slip for three months. Then it's over, the notice of termination has already been submitted.Jessica Diehm breaks up. She wanted it that way.

Kim Bjorn Becker

Editor in politics.

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Diehm is not the only intensive care nurse who is leaving the clinic during the corona crisis. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we were about seven more full-time employees than we are now,” she says. Some colleagues would have simply reduced their working hours. Others were traumatized and the images of Covid 19 sufferers choking on their scarred lungs could no longer get out of their heads. "Many colleagues have moved to staff units and are now taking care of hygiene, for example, while others have started to study," says Diehm. The intensive care unit in their hospital is built for 16 patients. Six beds currently have to remain empty because of a lack of staff. Intensive care is time-consuming, and a nurse should never look after more than two patients at the same time. Experts even consider one-to-one support to be ideal.According to a survey, only about one to two percent of clinics can achieve this.

More than 4,000 fewer intensive care beds

That Jessica Diehm decided to leave hits the hospital at a bad time.

Because while the coronavirus is rampant and many Covid 19 patients have to be hospitalized, the German clinics can treat significantly fewer intensive care patients than a year ago.

The German Interdisciplinary Society for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) reports that hospitals can currently operate almost 22,200 intensive care beds nationwide.

At the beginning of October last year, the clinics reported a total capacity of around 26,800 beds.

DIVI President Gernot Marx recently said the shortfall of around 4,000 beds was a problem.

He sees the reason for this in the fact that “depending on the stress, many nurses either quit their job or reduced their working hours”.

The shortfall could play an even bigger role in the future.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recently warned of a fifth wave of infections triggered by the new virus variant Omikron.

"We have to prepare for a challenge here that we have not yet faced in this form," said Lauterbach.