Mandatory masks, vaccinations and isolation – will the Corona controversy continue into the third pandemic winter? What does that do to the hospitals particularly affected? On “Hart aber fair,” Health Minister Lauterbach, among others, discusses how hospitals can recover.
Hospitals could be in for another hard winter. That’s what German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach fears. The reason: a new Corona variant, which could reach Germany in the winter according to expert opinion. It is more contagious than all other variants, but less deadly, according to Lauterbach. That’s why he advocates retaining the obligation to wear masks indoors.
Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek sees things quite differently. In the ARD program “Hart aber fair,” he explained that this regulation is a matter for the states. It was agreed that the decision would be “adapted to the situation”. This applies both to the obligation to wear masks in restaurants and to the organization of Christmas markets in December. This regulation has already proven itself in the organization of the Munich Oktoberfest.
There are currently very different opinions among the experts about the assessment of the Corona situation. Some of them fear a significant increase in levels due to public viewing events during the soccer World Cup starting on November 20, while others believe that the end of the Corona pandemic has now been reached. They are talking about an epidemic. Among them are virologist Christian Drosten or the head of the Permanent Vaccination Commission, Thomas Mertens.
Nevertheless, Lisa Schlagheck, a nurse and union official, also fears problems in the winter due to an overload of hospitals – but for a different reason. “The assumption that we are overloaded because of the Corona wave is wrong. In my opinion, we are overloaded because of the economization in health care and because of staff shortages. Corona is then the icing on the cake that burdens us,” she says.
Precarious situation in emergency departments
Indeed, in many emergency departments in particular, overwork among nursing staff is a problem that can become dangerous. “I would avoid hospitalization if at all possible,” sums up nurse Schlagheck at the end of the show. She works as an emergency nurse at Münster University Hospital. There are numerous other hospitals in the region, but they have to close their emergency wards when they are overloaded. That happens almost every day, Schlagheck reports. Then the patients come to her and her colleagues.
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