The situation at intensive care units (ICU) in German hospitals is unusually tight for the summer months, and certain non-essential operations are being postponed, Gernot Marx, head of the DIVI association of ICU doctors said on Monday.
"We have to take care once more that we work together as one. That means we have to shift staff around, cut free time, and sometimes work a third weekend in a row," Marx told national public broadcaster ZDF.
Elective surgery was being postponed to ensure that emergency treatment was available when needed, he said.
Speaking over the weekend, Marx said that 55% of ICUs were no longer operating as normal. He pointed to a number of factors, including twice as many Covid-19 patients in ICUs as at the same time last year, almost 2,000 fewer ICU beds available and many hospital staff off sick.
"I wouldn't call the situation dire, but it is tight, and that is unusual for this time in the summer, when it is usually a bit quieter," Marx said. The ICU situation felt much as it usually was in autumn and winter.
More generally, it was time for health-care professions to be made more attractive in Germany, he said.
Christian Karagiannidis, a government advisor on the coronavirus and a DIVI scientific expert, has reached a similar conclusion, describing the ICU situation as tight but not dire in remarks to the Süddeutsche Zeitung national daily.
He added: "I've never seen so many staff off as a result of Covid as in this wave."
