The Federal Council is currently putting extensive easing of the corona measures up for discussion. How are the hospitals doing? A conversation with Christoph Henzen, who heads the pandemic team at the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital.
SRF News: In December you still expected bottlenecks in the cantonal hospital in Lucerne and prepared yourself for difficult triage decisions. That didn’t happen. Were you too pessimistic?
Christoph Henzen: The special thing about the omicron wave is that we have a massive increase in infections, but not hospitalizations. In contrast to Denmark or England, for example, where more patients had to be hospitalized. One could almost speak of a Swiss paradox. We couldn’t foresee that in any way. But we are still so happy to accept that we were wrong.
The Federal Council is proposing two variants: staggering the measures or lifting them all at once. How do you feel about this?
From a medical point of view, I do believe that you can take relatively large steps towards normality. We are also in the process of planning appropriate steps in the hospital.
Are there any measures that you would like to keep, such as the obligation to wear masks?
In the hospital, the mask requirement will certainly remain in place for the time being.
You are the head of the pandemic team. Will this soon become obsolete?
Yes, you can say that. We’ve had to be quite alert and flexible and adapt for two years now. But if the way back to normal operation can be realized now – and it should go in this direction in the next seven days – then it is actually the case. Then we won’t be needed anymore.
Long Covid mainly affects those who have had a mild course.
But one issue that will remain is Long Covid. So people who don’t really get back on their feet long after their corona disease. The Lucerne Cantonal Hospital set up consultation hours for those affected last year. What is your experience?
It can be said that the office hours are quite busy. It affects quite a lot of Covid sufferers. And mainly those that had a rather mild course. So rarely those who had to be acutely hospitalized or treated in the intensive care unit.
You have had to constantly respond to changes over the past two years. How do you look back today?
What impressed me the most is the willingness to perform, the flexibility and the will to master the waves together. This affects all employees. From those who had to clean the newly cleared rooms to the highly specialized intensive care workers. Everyone really did an amazing job there. In the 35 years I spent in the hospital, this was never necessary. To see that this is possible is a really great thing.
Do you have the feeling that we have really reached the end of the tunnel or do we have to expect that a new corona variant will suddenly appear again?
What I’ve also learned in the last two years: Whenever you start reading the coffee grounds, you’re wrong. But I think the pandemic will now become more and more endemic. This means that when Omicron is over, Delta will probably increase again and there will be a certain number of unvaccinated people who will have to be hospitalized and at best end up in intensive care units. But it will be far fewer than anything we’ve experienced.
Tuuli Stalder conducted the interview.