Clinics create additional capacities due to Omicron surge

Due to the increasing number of Coronavirus patients in the normal wards of Berlin hospitals, more clinics are now becoming involved in the care of these patients.

Planned care hospitals admit additional Corona patients

So-called planned care hospitals, which are not emergency hospitals, are now going to offer additional beds to Corona virus patients. This was announced by the Berlin Hospital Association to the German Press Agency (dpa). The aim is to use additional capacities in order to ensure care, said spokeswoman Barbara Ogrinz.

Omicron poses challenges for clinics

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus poses new challenges for hospitals. Because the progression of the disease is less severe for many infected persons than it is for the Delta variant, and because more people are double or triple vaccinated, the number of Coronavirus patients in ICUs tends to decrease slowly or at least does not continue to grow at the previous rate. However, more and more Coronavirus cases are being treated in normal wards instead.

Covid-19 intensive care patients treated for weeks in some cases

According to spokeswoman Ogrinz, there were 436 patients Berlin-wide on January 7 and already 611 on January 19. "That is a strong increase," she said. The number of Covid-19 patients in ICUs has hovered around 200 in recent days. Some are treated there for weeks at a time and in some cases have to be ventilated. Ogrinz pointed out that hospital capacity is limited - especially since more employees are also becoming infected or need to be quarantined as contact persons in the Omicron surge. "While beds can be added, we simply don't have reserves of staff," she said.

Other scheduled surgeries expected to be postponed

"There will be increased postponements of scheduled treatments due to the rising number of Coronavirus cases, and patients will have to prepare for longer waiting times," Ogrinz said. "In this phase of the pandemic, we must carefully examine which cases need to be treated as outpatients, which cases to treat as inpatients and which ones in the ICU." Therefore, Ogrinz stated that what is needed now is good communication between physicians in private practices and doctors in hospitals.