Corona current
Schoolchildren * and pensioners * work in the hospital
© Photocarioca / Shutterstock
The Görlitz Clinic is struggling with the Corona crisis – and too few staff. After a call on Facebook, numerous people are now helping out, including schoolchildren * to pensioners *.
"We have never experienced a situation like this," wrote the Görlitz Clinic in Saxony on December 22nd on Facebook. A few days earlier, the hospital staff had already spoken to the public. It was an exceptional post on a social network: the clinic did not advertise – it asked for help.
Clinic is looking for help in the corona crisis
The corona crisis is pushing hospitals around the world and now also across Germany to their limits. 288 clinics are already at full capacity, and another 626 are reporting bottlenecks, according to Berliner Morgenpost. One of them is the Görlitz Clinic. "We are at the limit of our patient care options"It is written on the Facebook page. For this reason, the hospital decided in mid-December for an extraordinary action: It launched a call for help among the population.
Whoever can and wants to should contact the clinic. We were looking for people who would be willing to provide support with all aspects of patient care – from personal hygiene to serving food. Applicants can choose the area of application, protective equipment and a fixed-term employment contract are guaranteed.
100 volunteers sign up
In a pandemic, a hospital is certainly not the most popular place to work. The feedback that the clinic received on the contribution was all the more overwhelming: Over 100 people registered at the Görlitz Clinic and offered their help. 34 of them are now already in use, as stated in a press release: "We would never have thought that so many helping hands would be available," says nursing director Birgit Bieder.
There are very different people among the volunteers: In the clinic, schoolchildren, unemployed people, academics and retirees now work side by side. Not only do they make tea and make the beds, but above all they are just there – because what the patients are missing due to the ban on visits in the corona crisis are conversations.
"We are infinitely grateful to everyone who wants to help us. The response to the appeal has given us courage and is a really good sign in these difficult times," writes Managing Director Ulrike Holtzsch in the clinic's announcement.
That a hospital is calling for help may be a frightening sign that shows how serious the coronavirus pandemic is for each of us. But the response to the appeal is what gives confidence, because we are not going through this crisis alone, but only with solidarity.