According to the state’s hospital association, hospitals in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are currently missing a quarter of their staff. Therefore, employees from subordinate areas would be regrouped in children’s hospitals and emergency rooms. “Everyone is doing their best. But we are already asking for the understanding of the population that patients with non-life-threatening diseases have to put up with very long waiting times in the emergency rooms,” said managing director Uwe Borchmann on Thursday in Schwerin. Sometimes patients would be sent away again or referred to the emergency service of the resident doctors.
The letter from Health Minister Stefanie Drese (SPD) asking the clinics to first ensure emergency care was noted. “The best possible emergency care is a matter of course for the hospitals and their employees. However, our hospitals fear a high burden of outpatient emergencies, because experience has shown that many private medical practices close over the holidays and also on the working days in between,” Borchmann drew attention to an additional problem .
However, the postponement of interventions that Drese had planned for a long time in favor of emergencies also had economic consequences. “Insofar as the state government publicly requests our hospitals in letters from the ministries to cancel any planned interventions in favor of emergency storage capacities analogous to the corona pandemic, it should also declare the financing commitment for the resulting loss of revenue. We would have the signature of the Minister of Health right away expected from the Minister of Finance – but it was missing,” stated Borchmann.
