The Gecko advisory committee considers a hospital population of 2,500 to 4,000 patients at the peak of the summer wave to be possible. That would very likely hit hospitals in the middle of the holiday and holiday season. The APA asked the federal states how the hospitals were preparing for the wave.
The situation in Salzburg state clinics is getting worse
The situation is getting worse again in the Salzburg state clinics (SALK): The number of corona patients is increasing sharply (since mid-June from 14 to currently 38), as is the number of hospital employees who are unable to work due to Covid (from 42 to 110) . At the Salzburg University Hospital, 100 to 150 beds have been closed for a long time due to the pandemic but also due to a lack of staff, currently there are around 130. But it is also common in normal summers for the hospitals not to run at full speed, according to SALK spokesman Wolfgang Forweger to the APA.
No vacation bans during Corona summer wave
There are currently no holiday bans in Salzburg, “because our staff sometimes needs time to relax and have to work away from old vacations or overtime.” And he illustrated this with figures: In nursing alone, due to the delta and omicron wave, 600,000 plus hours have accumulated through unused holidays and overtime at the Salzburg University Hospital (state hospital and Christian Doppler Clinic).
Conversion to decentralized Covid care
Should more staff be absent, SALK will successively reduce services. There is a well-defined plan for this. In addition, the clinics will gradually switch to decentralized Covid care from mid-July, which means that corona patients will stay where they are for as long as possible, i.e. either at home, in a retirement home or on the original ward or on original location in the hospital.
(Those: APA)
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