-
ofAnnette Schlegl
–
shut down
–
In the old people’s and nursing homes in the Offenbach district, many staff are infected with Corona. The district administration therefore asks the population for help.
The Offenbach district has sent a call for help: it asks the citizens to lend a hand in the old people’s and nursing homes. Many of the nurses in the facilities are infected with the Covid 19 virus, the district announced, which is why support is urgently needed. In the district hospitals in Langen and Seligenstadt, the corona-related failures are limited.
In several retirement and nursing homes in the Offenbach district, the staff is reaching their limits, as many employees are infected and are absent due to the isolation. The remaining nurses have to put on extended shifts or additional services to compensate for the failures, and are therefore, as the district explains in a press release, at their end.
According to district spokeswoman Ursula Luh, there are no up-to-date figures on how many nurses are currently missing, as these are always only a snapshot. An update on positively tested employees and residents in old people’s and nursing homes is only possible every two weeks, since the health department does not need these numbers, but the tracking of contact persons. The next “water level” is not expected until the end of the week. “In any case, the situation in the old people’s and nursing homes is very tense,” says the press spokeswoman.
District Administrator Oliver Quilling (CDU) is now hoping for helping hands from the population together with the Offenbach district’s crisis team. On the one hand, we are looking for trained staff who are retired or on parental leave or who are now working in other areas. On the other hand, everyone is welcome who dares to relieve the staff in the homes in any way. A qualification is not necessary, but an email with details of the contact details and availability to [email protected]. Those who are qualified should indicate that.
At the Asklepios clinics in Langen and Seligenstadt, which are responsible for the acute care of patients from the Offenbach district, there are fewer problems. Ten percent of the nursing staff have so far failed in the current second wave due to a corona quarantine or disease, explains regional manager Jan Voigt, and describes this rate as “comparatively low”.
A separate employee test center has been available to the clinic staff since autumn. In addition, patients with suspected or confirmed corona infection would be admitted to separate outpatient rooms and treated in isolation wards. This could prevent a mix of patients with corona symptoms and patients with other diseases. At both locations, without exception, all patients admitted to the hospital were tested for Covid-19.
Nevertheless, the burden on the employees who ensure the care of the corona patients, as well as all other forces who compensate for this, has increased massively, notes Voigt. That is why they are looking for qualified nursing staff for both locations. However, he assumes that voluntary Corona helpers can currently be deployed faster and more constructively in retirement homes, in the vaccination centers or in the health authorities than in the two clinics. It is gratifying, however, that the number of requests for training in nursing at the training center in Dreieich is increasing.
Incidentally, according to Voigt, almost all corona patients in the Offenbach district have been cared for close to home – regardless of whether in the normal or intensive care unit. The doctors would individually assess whether emergency or planned treatments can be postponed or have to be carried out. “Sometimes, however, patients cancel the planned procedure on their own initiative or postpone it,” says Voigt.
–
