“Unvaccinated people are the greatest risk potential” – tirol.ORF.at
Tyrol is currently experiencing a massive shortage of beds. In some Tyrolean hospitals, the intensive care units are now completely full, says Barbara Friesenecker. There are still beds available in the Innsbruck clinic and additional capacities are being created. You can do this by starting to cancel operations and reallocating intensive care beds for corona patients. The patients could still be well cared for. Every patient receives the treatment they need.
“If the numbers continue to rise, we will come very close again to why we developed the guidelines in March 2020 to decide how to allocate the resources. Who will get the bed? Who is getting ventilation? Who will get the heart-lung machine? “These resources are then no longer available to everyone; making this decision is emotionally highly complex and difficult for the medical professional, says Friesenecker.
Triage: Chances of survival decide on supply
Triage is about deciding who receives which medical care when resources are scarce. These are the patients who die have the best chance of survival, according to Friesenecker. This would mean the patients who have a chance of survival but may suffer from long-term damage who do not get these beds in the intensive care units in the event of triage.
With “Triage light” you sort out more critically than usual, and you also consider whether operations on patients may have to be postponed. In Salzburg, for example, it was the case that a patient died of a heart attack because she was moved back on the waiting list. Her bed was used for a Covid patient, so her planned operation was postponed, the intensive care doctor describes a case.
No tourists with full intensive care beds
“A lockdown can be avoided if FFP2 masks are worn consistently, if the distance rules are adhered to and if the hygiene rules are adhered to. Unvaccinated people belong in isolation, and have no place in mass gatherings of people. We have to avoid indoor evening events and IF our intensive care units are already full, no tourists with the risk of getting sick or injuring themselves should be left in our country. “
These are unpopular points, but they are urgently needed to protect the health system and the medical staff from the threat of stress. Due to the maximum stress of the work situation, the staff is at the edge of their strength after almost two years. Working long hours in protective clothing is emotionally and physically demanding. The staff continues to provide the best possible care for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
More restrictions on freedom for unvaccinated people
Meetings at Christmas markets, for example, are better than indoors. However, it is difficult to control. And it is now known that vaccinated people can also transmit viruses, according to Friesenecker. Therefore, the rules would have to be adhered to if one wanted to avoid the lockdown. They find it fair and important that unvaccinated people have more restrictions on their freedom than vaccinated people, emphasized the intensive care doctor in an interview with ORF.
“Unvaccinated people are the highest risk potential for the health system that we currently have,” says Friesenecker.
“Vaccination is an act of solidarity”
From their point of view, it would be an act of solidarity for people to get vaccinated. There are currently 22 intensive care patients on her ward, four of whom are vaccinated and all of the others are not vaccinated. “The majority of these non-vaccinated people are now seriously ill and would not be in the intensive care unit if they were vaccinated. The fact that people should be vaccinated is something that can be demanded to relieve all of us. “