Geneva hospital staff work despite a positive Covid test
Bottlenecks
Working despite isolation: Geneva University Hospital uses Covid-infected staff
Due to isolation and quarantine, many employees are currently absent – also in the hospitals. This is why, as an exception, people who are actually in isolation are also used at the Geneva University Hospital.
Over 200,000 people are currently in isolation and quarantine based on numbers. Many of them are absent from work – which leads to a tense situation in some industries. The canton of Geneva has therefore taken an unusual measure: Certain employees work at the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) even though they tested positive and would actually be in isolation.
HUG spokesman Nicolas de Saussure writes on request: a decision by the canton doctor, since January 6, “the isolation of employees can be shortened at their request”. The opportunity is used: Around a hundred inquiries were approved, as hospital spokesman de Saussure writes.
The exception is only possible if certain conditions are met: those involved must not have any symptoms, when do they have to wear an FFP2 mask and eat alone. In addition, they are not allowed to come to work by public transport. They have to isolate themselves outside of working hours.
Geneva is currently badly affected by the virus, the number of cases is significantly higher than in German-speaking Switzerland. According to its own information, the HUG recorded an average of 65 new infections every day among its around 12,600 employees. The Federal Council’s decision to shorten the isolation to five days brings some relief, according to the HUG spokesman.
University Hospital Zurich does not rule out measures
In German-speaking Switzerland, there are currently no known cases in which hospital staff work with a special permit despite isolation. Upon request, the University Hospital Zurich explains that this is currently not necessary. “So far, personnel bottlenecks can be absorbed through structures such as the internal staff pool.”
However, it would also be possible for people to work at the University Hospital Zurich despite a positive test: In the event of a relevant staff shortage, the manager could apply for a permit to work in quarantine or isolation, writes a spokeswoman on request. Each application is then checked individually. In the past, the University Hospital Zurich had “given a few people a permit to work in quarantine”. You take additional protective measures.
On Thursday morning, 199 of the 9,300 employees at the University Hospital Zurich were in isolation or quarantine or could not work due to care tasks. This leads to “selective personnel bottlenecks”. But the situation is “very dynamic” and could change quickly.
The situation is tense, but not dramatic
It does not sound alarmist at the moment from other German-speaking hospitals either. At Basel University Hospital, for example, it is said that the shortening of the quarantine and isolation periods should ease the situation somewhat. “The situation is currently tense, but not dramatic as far as the failures are concerned,” explains a spokesman. “But of course we have to expect a further increase.”
The Inselspital in Bern is currently already recording a “strong increase” in staff absences compared to the previous period. Currently, this could still be intercepted within the archipelago mostly in the teams or by shifting staff, it is said. “Here the high vaccination rate of the employees plays into our cards.”
The Inselspital in Bern does not rule out the possibility that the duration of isolation could be shortened for participants without symptoms or with only a few symptoms, dies in consultation with the canton doctor. But that would be the ultima ratio, as the hospital makes clear: only in the event of a supply emergency and all other measures being exhausted would death come into question.