The sometimes tense situation in Berlin’s clinics remained largely unchanged over the Christmas holidays. “We continue to have a generally high number of emergencies,” said Charité spokeswoman Manuela Zingl of the dpa on Monday. In the children’s hospitals, the spectrum is shifting from RSV respiratory diseases to influenza diseases.
The Vivantes clinics said that a few days before the holidays, the program for operations had been limited to emergencies and vital operations that could not be postponed. Plannable interventions were not scheduled, so fewer patients than usual were admitted to the wards. At the seven emergency services, the number of patients increased over the long Christmas weekend as on other weekends, reported Vivantes spokeswoman Mischa Moriceau.
The children’s hospitals also did not report anything special. “Things are largely going well,” reported Jakob Maske, spokesman for the professional association of paediatricians. There could be delays in individual areas, but the overall situation is comparable to other weekends.
High staff shortage
Before the holidays, Berlin’s health senator Ulrike Gote (Greens) described the situation in children’s wards, emergency rooms and pediatric practices as “really dramatic”. This is very stressful for the patients and their families, but also for the medical staff.
In addition to the influenza virus, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is currently circulating, which can be particularly dangerous for small children and infants, but with which adults can also become infected. Pediatric facilities in particular are very busy as a result. To make matters worse, there is a greater lack of staff than already, because doctors and nursing staff also fall ill with influenza, RSV and corona.
The health service had been asked to only use doctors or hospital emergency rooms during the holidays in urgent cases. In this way, the city’s health care providers could primarily help those people who absolutely and immediately needed help, according to the Berlin Hospital Society, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the health administration. (dpa)
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