The chief physician and his entourage rush through the rooms during morning rounds at his ward in the Berlin Charité. Undercover reporter Lisa Plank is there to document this scene:
At a patient’s bedside, the boss sees that the follow-up treatment after an operation is anything but optimal. The patient should actually train his lungs with bellows after the operation.
“Where’s your thing that you’re always supposed to blow into? Didn’t you get anything?” he asks the patient. And addressed to his young colleague: “Where are his bellows?”
“I’ll get something,” the young colleague offers.
The boss, audibly annoyed: “No! It’s had to be here for two days, so you don’t have to get anyone now.”
Chief physician at the Charité: “Such shit!”
He turns to the door, runs past his employees with quick steps and growls: “This is really a shop. And unfortunately it’s mine. What bullshit.”
This scene can be heard in the second part of the investigative podcast “Inside Charité”, the exclusive research by star and RTL. Reporters Manka Heise and Christian Esser and their team spent more than nine months researching the working conditions at Germany’s most famous hospital.
Listen to the first episode of “Inside Charité”:
But it’s not just the undercover recordings that paint a catastrophic picture of the clinic. Several doctors spoke candidly to reporters. Specialist Laura Schaad is one of them. The pediatrician comes straight from work. It is the ninth day in a row that Laura Schaad has spent at her Charité ward. You can tell she’s tired as she star-Investigative reporter Christian Esser meets.
Like on an assembly line
The two have arranged to meet for an interview and they walk down to the Spree. The excursion steamers sail past them. But what Laura Schaad reports has nothing in common with the idyll of this sunny day:
“In our case, the services are such that we are sometimes responsible for 80 patients at the same time. And you don’t know all of them, you don’t know their entire history.”
“You alone are responsible for 80 patients?” asks reporter Esser in disbelief. “Yes,” confirms specialist Laura Schaad.
… and then the child goes to the intensive care unit a week later.”
And she reports on mistakes that can happen due to this workload. She and her colleagues once made a false diagnosis “and then the child ends up in the intensive care unit a week later.” They are just people and not machines.
You can hear more from the interview with Laura Schaad and also the conversation with the doctor Julian Gabrysch.
An insider also contacts reporters Manka Heise and Christian Esser. This person has known the Charité system for decades – and confirms the research 1:1…
More on the topic: The “stern Investigative.” documentation “Inside Charité – The truth about Germany’s most famous clinic” You can access it on and RTL+.
Contributed: Bernhard Albrecht, Moritz Dickentmann, Christian Esser, Manka Heise, Isa von Heyl, Sabine Greul, Tina Kaiser, Tim Kickbusch, Maria Mack, Marc Neller, Lisa Plank, Mona Rademacher, Alexander Römer, Anna Schwarzer, Andolin Sonnen, Charlotte Wirth
Source: Stern
I’m Caroline, a journalist and author for 24 Hours Worlds. I specialize in health-related news and stories, bringing real-world impact to readers across the globe. With my experience in journalism and writing in both print and online formats, I strive to provide reliable information that resonates with audiences from all walks of life.
