There is great tension in the clinics before Christmas – Freiburg

In the Freiburg area, 219 people have died from an infection with the coronavirus since the pandemic began. The health department reported four more deaths on Wednesday morning – three people affected lived in the city, one in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district. In addition, 24 new infections with the Sars-CoV-2 virus were reported for the city and 17 new infections for the district.

The number of patients with severe illnesses who currently have to be treated in one of the Freiburg hospitals has also increased slightly. A total of 91 infected people (previous week: 88) are on the wards. 33 need ventilation, four more than in the previous week. In the university clinic, 65 Covid patients are now being cared for, 28 of whom have to be ventilated. There are 13 corona infected people in the Diakoniekrankenhaus in Landwasser, two of them under ventilation. The St. Josef Hospital reports seven patients who have contracted the virus, three of whom need ventilation. The Loretto Hospital currently cares for a total of six people affected.

Great tension before Christmas

There is still great tension in the hospitals before the coming Christmas days. Bottlenecks in the intensive care beds are not expected. “We benefit from the fact that traditionally at Christmas and on the days leading up to the New Year the program for normal operations is always cut back anyway,” says Christoph Wiesenack, the medical director of the Diakoniekrankenhaus. Of course, emergencies would continue to be operated on or urgent tumor surgery interventions carried out. But there are still enough free intensive care beds in the hospitals.

“We are currently in the process of making lists with heier Nadel” Christoph Wiesenack

But it’s not just about free beds: “It also needs staff,” said Wiesenack. And all Freiburg houses would have had problems in turn because infected employees were absent. That led to bottlenecks. Last week the Diakoniekrankenhaus even had to temporarily deregister the department for internal medicine. But the intensive care staff will be vaccinated from Sunday in the vaccination center with the highest priority. It will be the turn of the Diakonie team from Monday: “We are currently in the process of creating lists with a hot needle,” says the medical director.

How Covid-19 continues in the wards in the Freiburg hospitals now also depends on everyone’s behavior over Christmas and New Year – if there are more new infections, this will be reflected in the intensive care units in three weeks. “It is already clear that the second wave is much larger than the first wave in spring,” says chief physician Wiesenack. The advantage is that the hospitals are better prepared – on the one hand in terms of equipment, on the other hand you also know how to quickly shift staff.

–