Halle/Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – Because of the flu epidemic and the many RS virus diseases in infants and small children, the supply situation in the children’s hospitals in the state continues to worsen. After the pediatric and adolescent medicine department of the Magdeburg Clinic had already signaled that the capacity limit had been reached, several hospitals in Halle and the Saalekreis district are now sounding the alarm, according to a joint statement on Friday.
In it, the University Hospital, the St. Elisabeth and St. Barbara Hospital, the Bergmannstrost Clinic, the Martha-Maria Halle-Dölau Hospital and the Diakonie Hospital (all Halle) and the Carl-von-Basedow-Klinikum Saalekreis call on parents, emergency rooms only in the event of a severe course of the disease or an acute deterioration in the general condition.
The reasons are staff shortages and too few beds for inpatient admissions. In the children’s clinics in Saxony-Anhalt, the number of beds fell by 74 to 1024 from 2020 to 2021, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office.
The State Medical Association called on schools and kindergartens to refrain from issuing unnecessary certificates for sick and healthy children. In the current situation, it is appropriate to trust more parental care, it said. Pediatric practices are “extremely stressed” due to the increasing number of infections.
