Germs, congested staff, premature dismissals - the conditions in German hospitals are catastrophic. That's what health minister Gröhe says.
Photo: WDR / Mediathek
The conditions in German hospitals are catastrophic. This shows a new episode of the program "Hard but fair", in which a nurse reveals the working conditions in German hospitals. Under the provocative title of the broadcast "Danger hospital - little staff, but plenty of germs?" the guests discussed austerity measures by German hospitals and overburdened staff . Various studies assume that 15, 000 people die each year from hospital staff errors.
As surgical nurse Jana Langer told in the show, hospitals have since the introduction of the case lump sum, in the health insurance no longer pay for services, but a lump sum after illness bill, patients to send as soon as possible to their homes. Patients thus become the "commodity" that is supposed to bring money, and often dismissed prematurely.
Overloaded nursing staff and unhygienic conditions
On the other hand, the nursing staff, who can barely withstand the pressure from above, is overwhelmed and accumulates unpaid overtime . The sisters are under such stress that mistakes happen. Also, the conditions in the clinics are unhygienic . Reinhold Beckmann, who was also a guest of the show, told of the fate of his brother, who was infected after a lung operation with multidrug-resistant germs. Against this type of germs, most antibiotics are ineffective; Beckmann's brother died of the infection.
Beckmann did not blame anyone on the show for his brother's fate, but he pointed to doctors who are poorly trained in hygiene issues and sit on hospital beds or do not wash their hands properly. Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe, who was also a guest, then offered an equally idealistic as well as unrealistic solution: "Self-confident patients" should simply be the Doctors caution to work hygienically. Um, yes. Nurse Lange expressed quiet doubt on this suggestion; it is difficult to imagine that patients who may be waiting for death too much self-confidence to have.
Grohe's other suggestions to relieve the nursing staff were also something very pragmatic: Tablets instead of forms and lower staff, voila and everyone is satisfied. In the latter case, however, it is currently still being discussed when it would be possible to implement a lower staff limit at all. On the whole, the show was so very sobering way: Better to stay healthy . It's just a pity that you can not just decide that.
In the ARD-Mediathek you can watch the whole episode "Hard but fair" for another week.
