According to the intensive care physician Christian Karagiannidis, the sick leave in the population has reached historical dimensions. “Sick leave in society is currently extremely high, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said the President of the German Society for Internal Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine of the “Rheinische Post”.
In many regions there are almost no more free intensive care beds. The main problem is no longer corona infections. “We are currently fighting a very wide range of diseases: flu, RS virus, corona and other respiratory diseases, plus the usual emergencies.”
Karagiannidis has hope for the holidays. “I am counting on the fact that we will soon be able to save ourselves for the holidays. Then the volume in the clinics usually ebbs away, the capacities in the hospitals increase again.”
Bottlenecks “worrying for a country like Germany”
Karagiannidis is also a member of the Government Commission on Hospital Care. In addition to the bottlenecks in the clinics, the healthcare system is also struggling with bottlenecks in a number of medicines. Karagiannidis advocated that the state, in cooperation with local pharmaceutical manufacturers, produce certain medicines for stock so that they are always available in sufficient quantities.
“It will be expensive for the country, but I find it worrying for a country like Germany that we have been struggling with such bottlenecks for a long time and that this shortage has become particularly acute this year due to the many infections,” said Karagiannidis.
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek spoke in the “Rheinische Post” for a top-level meeting on the supply of medicines. “The federal government should convene a summit with all the institutions involved before Christmas and look for solutions together with medical associations, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, pharmacists, pharmaceutical wholesalers and pharmaceutical companies,” said the CSU politician.
