Fresenius boss worried: criticism of focus on intensive care beds

Fresenius boss worried
Criticism of focus on intensive care beds

In the corona pandemic, there are repeated warnings of an impending overload of the health system. The head of the medical company and hospital operator Fresenius criticizes the focus on intensive care beds. He also warns not only to look at Corona.

In the Corona crisis, Fresenius boss Stephan Sturm criticizes too much focus on the intensive capacities of the clinics. "The one-sided focus of politics on intensive care beds is wrong," said the chief executive of the medical group and hospital operator of the dpa. Where there were bottlenecks in hospitals, it was mostly because of the lack of intensive care staff and not because of the lack of intensive care beds. The much-discussed shortage of staff already existed before the Corona crisis, said Sturm.

With its subsidiary Helios, Fresenius is Germany's largest private clinic operator. The chain treats around 5.6 million patients in Germany every year. "Even if intensive care capacities should be exhausted, Covid patients can be treated as inpatients," said Sturm. Corona patients can also be treated in appropriately upgraded intermediate care wards, an intermediate stage between normal and intensive care wards. Clinical data showed a comparably low mortality rate among corona patients in other countries, while there a lower proportion was in intensive care units.

In order to cope with the pandemic, better networking of hospitals in Germany is necessary, says Sturm. For example, clinics from less affected regions could accept corona patients from hotspots. Helios did this at Berlin hospitals, where capacities for corona patients were running out. "We need more transparency in the health system," said the manager. However, there is resistance to a central register that would make it easier to distribute patients. "Even if not every patient is transportable, we can do better here." According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, with the number of infections increasing, there were recently around 4600 free intensive care beds. The head of the German Hospital Association, Gerald Gaß, recently pointed out that there are around 40 percent more intensive care patients than in spring. The situation is stressful for the staff in many clinics.

The second corona wave had arrived in the 89 German Helios clinics, said Sturm. "But overall we still have sufficient capacity". Helios is currently treating more than 1,400 corona patients, around a fifth or around 280 people in intensive care units. Helios has around 1400 intensive care beds, and another 1000 intensive care beds can be made available at short notice. The situation is tense in some places. "But we are not facing collapse," said Sturm. Fresenius has treated around 9,000 corona patients in this country since the spring, 27 percent of them in intensive care units. So there are currently less difficult courses, said Sturm. In Spain, which is badly affected, where Helios is also active and there are generally fewer intensive care beds, the mortality rate is similar to that in Germany.

Heart attacks and strokes

"Corona is here and it is a very serious disease," emphasized the manager. A one-sided orientation of politics on the virus is wrong. "There are still heart attacks and strokes. It would be wrong to forego preventive examinations for fear of the coronavirus. I appeal to people: see a doctor!" Otherwise, the price will be paid in the coming years in the form of excess mortality, for example for cancer patients. "We also see many heart attacks and strokes far too late."

Sturm had repeatedly criticized a one-sided orientation of politics on the Corona crisis. In the spring, Fresenius generally did not have to postpone absolutely necessary ("elective") operations in order to keep beds free for corona patients. In the end, the first wave of the pandemic in this country was mild and many beds were empty. That cost Fresenius a lot of money. "My criticism is not about economic aspects," emphasized Sturm. He complained about political interference. Which patients should be treated – whether corona sufferers or others – "shouldn't be decided by politicians remotely, but by doctors on site". Half of the capacities in the Helios clinics are occupied by elective surgery, patients stayed an average of four days. "So we can clear half a hospital in four days."

The pandemic has also hit the Dax group economically. Especially in the second quarter, Fresenius felt the consequences in the clinic business. Since fewer operations were carried out, the subsidiary Fresenius Kabi, which specializes in liquid generic drugs such as anesthetics and clinical nutrition, also suffered. There were catch-up effects in the third quarter. The financial consequences of the corona were alleviated for several months by government lump sums for beds kept free. In the current final quarter, thanks to new legal requirements, German clinics will largely be reimbursed for any lower revenues compared to the previous year. Fresenius will be able to keep its – already lowered – annual forecasts, said Sturm: "I firmly assume it will."

. (tagsToTranslate) Politics (t) Fresenius (t) Hospital (t) Sars-Cov-2 (t) Covid-19