Hospitals in Germany struggling to cope amid ferocious fourth wave
FREISING, GERMANY: With intensive care beds filling up and healthcare staff running short, a hospital in this Bavarian town made an unprecedented decision: to transfer a coronavirus patient to northern Italy for treatment.
Over 18 months of the pandemic, Germany had on many occasions taken in patients from neighbouring countries as hospitals elsewhere ran out of space.
But a ferocious fourth wave has sent infections to record highs in Europe's biggest economy, putting hospitals in parts of the country under immense strain and forcing some to look elsewhere in the European Union for help.
While the absolute number of patients in intensive care is still below the peak a year ago, this time around, hospitals are also ailing from the double whammy of a shortfall in personnel that has seriously hampered their ability to cope.
"Last week... we had to transfer a patient by helicopter to Merano," said Dr Thomas Marx, 43, medical director at the hospital in Freising, which is about 350km by road from the Italian city.
"We had no more capacity to receive them, and the surrounding Bavarian hospitals were also full," he said.
With Germany's vaccination rate stagnating at under 70 per cent in recent weeks, top health officials have pleaded for more to get the jab to stem the surge in infections.
MORE CURBS
In a bid to get more to take the jab, Germany's Parliament is poised to vote through new regulations for more curbs on the unvaccinated.
Under proposals drafted by the three parties in talks to form Germany's new government, unvaccinated people will soon have to produce a negative test to use public transport or go to the office.
At the intensive care unit of Munich Clinic Schwabing, senior doctor Niklas Schneider voiced frustration over vaccine resistance in some quarters.
Health staff also complain that more should have been done to bolster their numbers.
Only about a quarter of German hospitals can maintain a regular intensive care service now, said Spiegel magazine.
Many others say a major problem is the acute shortage of trained personnel.
Already a chronic problem before the pandemic, long hours, low pay and the added stress have put even more people off a job in the healthcare sector. - AFP
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