Richard Greil on hospital care in Salzburg: “Most massive restriction”
“We have a massive restriction in normal supply,” suggests Richard Greil, oncologist and director of the Salzburg University Hospital, in the “Ö1 lunch journal“Alarm. In Salzburg, according to the doctor, 240 beds are blocked due to a lack of staff, and another 100 are occupied by seriously ill people who cannot be transported home. At the same time, the city of Salzburg has an incidence of 1,000, the area around the city even one of 1,300.
That go “heavily to the detriment” of non-Covid patients. Efforts are being made to maintain supplies, but “we are in a very, very precarious situation”. The difference to November of last year is that, due to the lack of staff, the same bed capacity cannot be provided, but the patients are quickly at the same level and new ones are constantly being added.
2G is not enough
Greil calls for “immediate” and “massive” measures. There must be a reduction that corresponds to a lockdown, “no matter what you call it”. 2G in the leisure sector and 3G at work could be enough in another federal state, but the “braking curve is far too slow” for Salzburg. You might have had to do that at the beginning of September, then it might have been enough, but now it’s much too late, the doctor describes the situation.
Vaccinations won’t take effect until 2022
Waiting for more people to be vaccinated is not a solution. “With this vaccination rate that we have, an effective effect can be seen at the end of this year at the earliest and at the beginning of next year. ” On November 7th last year, the numbers would have decreased two weeks after the start of lockdown. The incidence is currently significantly higher than it was then and the numbers are still increasing. Greil assumes that Salzburg and Upper Austria, which have the highest incidence in Austria, are two weeks ahead of the other federal states in the current incidence development.
This crisis was foreseeable, the federal minister (Mückstein, note) has to take on the final responsibility.