More and more experts are speaking out in favor of a lockdown for everyone in Austria due to the increasing number of Covid intensive care patients. “Otherwise it won’t work out”, said Rainer Thell, senior physician in the emergency department at the Donaustadt Clinic, formerly SMZ Ost, in an interview with the APA. “It cannot be that people die in Salzburg and that no courageous, obvious decisions are made,” he criticizes.
“Now you can relieve Salzburg and fly patients to Vienna and Lower Austria.” Because there are still beds for Covid 19 patients, for example. He could not accept that dying is allowed, said Thell. “If we don’t show solidarity now, then when?” Asked the anesthetist and intensive care specialist. “But anyone who thinks that only Salzburg and Upper Austria are badly affected are wrong,” he said. “The wave will continue. The Christmas business and the winter season are in great danger if we don’t hit the brakes now, ”said Thell.
Because “all regional, partial or pseudo lockdowns will only prolong the problem, but not push it down. We all have our heads like yeast dough, ”said the senior doctor. “We are simply running out of time. We can’t wait until the end of November either. We don’t screw it up with a temporary lockdown, but invest in a very important thing: in Advent and Christmas, ”said the doctor. “In truth, we all never live in total freedom, but only in degrees of freedom. And now we simply have to withdraw ourselves in the interests of those who have to be treated in the hospitals, that is all. “
In Vienna, too, more Covid stations are constantly being opened and other stations are being closed. Further intensive care beds would also have to be made available for patients at all times. Planned operations are being postponed or even discontinued so that Covid patients can be cared for. In the non-Covid wards, patients have to move closer and closer together. “Everything is constantly shifting backwards, which has a huge impact on everyone,” explained Thell. Emergencies – for example after a traffic accident – will of course continue to be cared for, emphasized the doctor.
The situation is particularly dramatic in Salzburg, where the regional clinics have already nominated a six-person triage team consisting of five doctors from various fields and one lawyer. You then have to decide which patients can still be treated in intensive care. Thell stressed, however, that the staff in the emergency rooms and intensive care units are on their own. “At 2:00 in the morning there is no committee to make decisions. These then have to be taken ad hoc, ”said the intensive care doctor.
In Austria, the lockdown currently applies to people who have neither been vaccinated nor recovered. This “only contributes to the division of society”, Thell criticized. In addition, “it is not possible to separate who is vaccinated and who is not. We all, the population, urgently need trust and guidance ”. Unvaccinated people shouldn’t be locked out, demanded Thell. Many have worries and fears, but are not dedicated vaccination opponents. The door must be kept open for them and invited to “jump over their shadows and reconsider their position. They don’t lose face, they show true greatness when they decide to have a vaccination, ”stated the doctor. (APA / red)
