News from 02/16/2021
By Daniel-David Pirker
In December, Dirk Lang shared a detailed Facebook post that triggered a huge wave of feedback. Now the head of the Hachenburg intensive care unit gave another insight into the everyday life of his facility, which met with great interest. The couriers spoke to him.
Hachenburg / region. Dirk Lang had to postpone the appointment for the agreed conversation with the couriers. At short notice, he had to take on the night shift for a colleague, as the head of the Hachenburg intensive care unit explains. The extra shifts are not an isolated case on the contrary. Night shift is a particular problem.
The well-connected hospital employee reports that the occupancy of corona patients in the intensive care units tended to be down. But in Hachenburg the burden is picking up again. Dirk Lang expects this trend to solidify. The reason: the mutations of the corona virus, which are more contagious. At the moment, half of the beds in his area are occupied by Covid-19 patients, who are always seriously ill and therefore highly care-intensive.
Ultimately, the small clinics like Hachenburg did the same job as the large facilities with the exception of a lung replacement procedure (ECMO). The workload is still immense for him and his team. The corona patients would now have to be cared for in addition to regular operations. In addition, the surgery appointments postponed in the first lockdown will now be made up for. The whole system would be overrun.
Lang’s interim conclusion: On the whole, everything worked very well, but only thanks to the exceptional commitment of the staff. The employees wish to get back into normal waters at some point. Dirk Lang has been working in intensive care medicine for 30 years. There was already a shortage of skilled workers when he started his career. Here he protects his employer. They are trying to hire new staff, but the market has simply been swept empty. Young professionals in particular are difficult to attract to the country. In Hachenburg one can be satisfied that it has succeeded in attracting younger nurses from Siegerland or the Rhineland. His intensive care unit is still relatively well staffed, even if you naturally want more and more support.
But this assessment must not hide what Lang has now denounced in a new Facebook post. In it he wrote: To this day we have not received a premium, the countless overtime is taxed or paid out for little money. And now the next slap in the face. With this, the head of the intensive care unit is aiming at the vaccination situation for the staff. The promised supply of the highly effective vaccines from Biontech or Moderna could have been a glimmer of hope, he explains to the couriers. After all, he and his employees were exposed to massive aerosols, suctioned off, bronchoscoped, all in waterproof protective clothing and an FFP 3 mask. Non-stop in three shifts and few staff. 365 days / 24h, as he vividly described on Facebook.
But according to the vaccination ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Health, the 18- to 64-year-old hospital employees are to be vaccinated with the vector vaccine from Astra Zeneca until further notice. It has been proven that this vaccine works significantly worse and does not adequately deal with the mutations that can be expected in the next few weeks.
It is also annoying that some hospital sponsors had secured Biontech vaccines early on. However that happened. In any case, the idea of solidarity does not work and employees from administration and non-medical areas have been vaccinated. In his opinion, all employees in the clinics should first have been vaccinated who work in the critical areas, i.e. the emergency room, intensive care unit and isolation ward. We are disappointed and frustrated. That doesn’t fit Mr. Spahn, like so many things, it finally says in his Facebook post.
Dirk Lang adds to the couriers that he would have liked to distribute the remaining vaccine among the institutions in solidarity. His employees had to wait a long time for the immunizing spades. Now, this week, only Astra-Zeneca active ingredient is available. Just recently, his team’s willingness to vaccinate was 90 percent. Now it has dropped to 0 percent out of frustration. The employees have no choice but to clench their fists in their pockets and have the worse-looking serum injected. His demoralizing conclusion: It remains a bland aftertaste. (ddp)
More on the topic: Coronavirus
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