The number of new coronavirus infections is growing rapidly. More and more people need to be treated in intensive care units. Beds are scarce in Munich, as the fourth wave of coronavirus cases has hit the city with full force.
Of the 26 ICU beds, ten are occupied by coronavirus patients, while another 12 patients are treated in the normal ward. Christine Beenken, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said: “The beds are always full at night.” The situation is very tense. “Sometimes we have to say no and reject patients,” Beenken said.
22 free ICU beds throughout Munich
Of the 455 intensive care beds in the state capital, only 22 were vacant on Thursday afternoon, according to the German Intensive Care Unit for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI). They were, in fact, the only free beds in the whole area. This corresponds to a usage of over 95%. Respectively, 117 cases of Covid are hospitalized in the intensive care unit, 62 of which required tracheotomy or intubation.
In the previous days, the Munich Clinic had appealed to all Medical and Natural Sciences students on social networks. “Students against the 4th wave – help in regular and intensive care units or in the laboratory!”, Writes the post.
The less space there is in the intensive care unit, the more often doctors face a problem: Which patient has priority in bed: a patient with a heart attack or an accident victim? The hierarchy of medical emergencies due to inadequacies has already begun, Ärzteblatt writes about the situation in southern and eastern Germany. At the Munich Clinic, CEO Fischer says they are preparing to select patients so they can “act legally and ethically” if needed.
The Brothers of Mercy Clinic has published a patient selection document, which was drafted as part of a pandemic plan last year. It is based on the recommendations of the German Ethics Council, which published updated guidelines a year ago and states that patients should be ranked according to the chances of treatment success.
Therefore, age or origin should play a minor role.
At Munich University Clinics, staff are at their limits. “Because we need more intensive care beds for patients with Covid infections every day, we need to close more surgeries and can only guarantee the treatment of other critically ill patients,” said Philippe Cresirer, a spokesman for the LMU Clinic.
The doctors in charge are busy many hours a day organizing new intensive care beds. However, no patients have yet been transferred to other federal states or even abroad. “The treatment of unvaccinated patients with Covid in our intensive care unit is at the expense of many vaccinated patients with other serious illnesses,” says Cresirer.
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