“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have pointed out that the development in the intensive care units is a key parameter for the extent of the crisis,” said ÖGARI President Walter Hasibeder on Wednesday afternoon. The Austrian Society for Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (ÖGARI) emphasized the path from normal operation to system overload “in steps and must therefore always be kept in mind”.
“Our intensive care units are regularly occupied to a very high degree, even without additional stress. If the additional stress from Covid 19 patients or other critical developments exceeds ten to 15 percent, you can no longer stay in the hospital Move within the usual routine, but must gradually reduce other services, “said Hasibeder. It is therefore gratifying “if the federal government now plans to set the ten percent mark as a trigger for additional measures.”
Bottlenecks could threaten
If up to ten percent of the intensive care beds in a region are occupied by additional exposure such as currently Covid-19, ÖGARI believes that normal operation can be guaranteed to a large extent unchanged. With an additional occupancy of between ten and 30 percent, however, measures would have to be taken to reduce the load on resources. If the additional occupancy moves in the range of 30 to 50 percent, there are increasing bottlenecks in the intensive care units. More and more planned operations would then have to be postponed for a longer period of time. Regular operating theaters would have to be closed for routine operations, overtime and additional night shifts would have to be added.
If the additional load exceeds 50 percent of the intensive care beds, routine surgical operations would have to be restricted to a large extent. According to ÖGARI, this would mean the following: “The quality of medical care is reduced in view of a lack of resources. For some patients, care at the usual high level can no longer be provided. Normal operation in intensive care units is no longer guaranteed for all patients, it does it finally comes to the much-cited ‘triage’. The system is gradually approaching collapse. “
Urgent vaccination appeal
To prevent this, the intensive care physicians sent an “urgent vaccination appeal to everyone who is not yet immunized against SARS-CoV-2”. The number of Covid patients in intensive care units is increasing rapidly and steadily: “It doesn’t have to be like that. The data are clear that the risk of a severe course is negligible with a complete immunization, vaccinated intensive care patients with Covid-19 are the absolute exception. “
