More sick, fewer employees
Intensive care physician warns: “The situation in children’s hospitals is dramatic”
Berlin.Medical associations condemn dramatic supply bottlenecks and abuse in German children’s hospitals. The reason is above all a lack of staff, so many hospital beds can not be filled, said the chairman of the Society for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Jörg Dötsch, the newspapers in the media group Funke on Wednesday. “In the autumn, almost all children’s hospitals were completely overwhelmed. It could threaten again next fall if the situation does not change before then, “he warned.
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Dötsch said caring for children in the hospital is harder to calculate than that of adults. From a purely financial point of view, children’s hospitals can therefore often not pay for themselves. In addition, there is a binding minimum staffing: For example, a nurse may care for a maximum of ten children at night. For each additional child, an extra strength must be planned – which is often lacking. Many beds can therefore not be operated due to staff shortages.
Move children across the border
Dötsch pointed out that one should not only think purely financially. Because with pediatric and adolescent medicine, it is just like with the fire service: “The fire service is funded, even when there is no fire.”
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According to Dötsch, even at normal times, six to seven clinics are called through until a suitable bed is found. “It has also happened that we have moved children across the border to Luxembourg, Belgium or the Netherlands.” It is a huge burden for the children and the families.
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According to the Society for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the number of beds in pediatrics fell by a third between 1991 and 2017. In the same period, however, the annual number of cases increased: from an average of 900,000 treated children and adolescents to more than one million.
There is a shortage of staff in children’s hospitals
The Secretary General of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Florian Hoffmann, agreed with Dötsch. “The situation in the children’s hospitals is dramatic and will only get worse.” In many German children’s hospitals, on average, a third of the beds could not be used due to a lack of staff in the child intensive care units. “In some clinics, even half can no longer be proven,” Hoffmann stressed.
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But a system that has been shut down for years cannot just be restarted. ‘Even if politicians take countermeasures now, changes will not take effect until a few years from now. The trend will continue to go downhill for now, ”he said.
harm to children?
Far worse than inadequate refunds is another problem, he said. “We will be able to operate fewer and fewer beds in the children’s hospitals due to the lack of care staff.” The working conditions and development opportunities made it increasingly difficult to retain the nursing staff in the profession in the long term.
If there are waves of infection, as they usually do in the autumn, we have no chance of taking care of all children. ” In such cases, it is necessary to call for hours to find available beds somewhere in Germany. This means that the children are no longer treated in a clinic with maximum medical treatment, but possibly in a hospital that has much less experience. Children can be harmed in this way.
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RND / dpa / epd