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The limit has been reached – only every tenth intensive care bed is free

The queries of the Divi intensive care register at hospitals indicate an increasingly critical situation in Germany's intensive care units.

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The limit has been reached – only every tenth intensive care bed is free

The queries of the Divi intensive care register at hospitals indicate an increasingly critical situation in Germany's intensive care units. The number of free intensive care beds fell to 2055 on Tuesday. This is the second lowest daily value since the beginning of the corona pandemic, and even fewer beds were only free on December 13, 2021. In the current year, between 3,000 and 3,500 beds were mostly unoccupied, but in principle operational.

With a total of 20,543 available intensive care beds, the proportion of free beds has fallen to 10.0 percent for the first time this year. This corresponds exactly to the value that the RKI considers the minimum. According to the authority, the ten percent threshold is “the limit of the clinics’ ability to react”. The trend is still downwards.

Just two weeks ago, the proportion of vacant beds was 13 percent. Some federal states have already fallen well below the ten percent mark: in Berlin the proportion of free intensive care beds is seven percent, in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt it is eight percent each and in Hesse it is nine percent. An extreme case is the smallest federal state: In Bremen, only four of 162 intensive care beds were free on Tuesday.

Of around 1,300 intensive care units in the country, more than 800 recently said in the Divi queries that their operating situation was “restricted” or “partially restricted”. The main reason for the current bottlenecks is the acute shortage of staff in hospitals. In addition, there could be an increasing number of Covid 19 patients who require intensive care treatment in the next few weeks.

Their number had reduced after the end of the wave of infections in early autumn, but the occupancy has been rising again for around a week and a half from a significantly reduced level. On Tuesday, more than 1000 corona cases in intensive care units were reported for the first time in three weeks.

Not least against this background, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach presented the plans for a reform of hospital care. "From my point of view, they are a revolution in the system," said the SPD politician. He promised a detachment from the flat-rate reimbursement in hospitals. Many specialists left the clinics because they could not bear the economic pressure. "Otherwise we won't be able to take care of the baby boomers," warned Lauterbach.

The reform is based on three pillars: On the one hand, citizens should be able to rely on the fact that hospitals, especially in rural areas, will remain in place, regardless of the number of cases, if they are necessary for care. A “reserve payment” should be paid for this. Secondly, clinics are to work more closely with resident doctors in the future, thereby promoting outpatient treatment. Third, Lauterbach wants hospitals to specialize more.

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