The Marburger Bund Medical Association is sounding the alarm: In some clinics, wards, emergency rooms and rescue services can no longer be operated due to staff shortages.

In view of staff shortages in clinics due to the corona summer wave, the Marburger Bund medical association warns of restrictions in health care. “We see bottlenecks in clinics, especially in Schleswig-Holstein with its particularly high number of infections,” said Susanne Johna, chairwoman of the “Handelsblatt”. “But also in other federal states, stations, emergency rooms and the rescue service can no longer be operated due to a lack of staff. We also have to assume that more staff will be absent in the coming weeks.”

Overall, the situation is manageable, but the health system is “reaching its limits in places,” said Johna. “In the third year of the pandemic, this is a small catastrophe.” Most would not get infected on the job, but in their private lives.

The chairwoman of the doctors’ union again warned of the danger of simultaneous corona and flu waves in autumn. With a view to the political debate about which corona protection measures should then be possible, she criticized a “hanging game”: “I think it’s a big mistake that politicians couldn’t agree on measures for the fall before the summer break. (…) For the third autumn in a row, we can’t really prepare.”

The German Hospital Society had also recently expressed concern about staff shortages in clinics.