There is an acute shortage of skilled workers in the clinics. If the severe corona diseases increase again, there is a risk of overload.
Frankfurt – Employees in the health system warn that the clinics will be overloaded in autumn. The shortage of staff is already leading to patients not being adequately cared for and operations having to be postponed. The situation can currently still be controlled, but one is not prepared for an increase in severe corona infections, so the tenor.
Even if the omicron variant still only forces a few people into the intensive care unit despite high infection rates, Corona is still part of the current problem situation. Many hospital staff are absent due to illness. “At certain clinics we really have 20 to 30 percent of the staff absent,” says Eduard Fuchshuber from the Bavarian Hospital Society to the German Press Agency (dpa). Meanwhile, there is a message from Baden-Württemberg that 10 to 15 percent of the hospital beds cannot currently be occupied.
Shortage of skilled workers in clinics: Nurses warn of a corona emergency
The shortage of skilled workers in areas such as nursing is nothing new. Even before the corona pandemic, hospital beds could not be occupied due to a lack of staff, according to the hospital company in Baden-Württemberg. However, it has never been as difficult as it is now to fill vacancies in nursing. The industry itself is therefore demanding better conditions, especially with a view to autumn.
Nursing staff at the university hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia have been on strike for three months to demand better working conditions. Many of those involved are about to leave the profession, the nurse Dominik Stark tells RTL .
Overloading of the clinics in the next corona wave: “full catastrophe”
Intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange, who has regularly drawn attention to the grievances in the industry since the beginning of the pandemic, is also calling for better incentives for nurses to improve the situation. “If you had done everything properly, there would now be more staff available,” he said in an interview with t-online .
The intensive care nurse paints a bleak picture for the coming Corona autumn: He expects a “full catastrophe. People always ask if we are well prepared for autumn. My answer is: No.” Much more should have been done beforehand for the staffing situation in the hospitals. A few days ago, Lange complained to Anne Will about overloaded intensive care units and the inaction of those responsible to make the nursing profession more attractive.
Family caregivers also face problems. The SPD in Hesse sees a great lack of support offers. (vbu with dpa)
