Fuss about chief hygienist at regiomed

The sonneberg district is currently one of the corona hotspots in germany, even though the infection figures have fallen recently. The effects can also be seen at the sonneberg hospital: because several employees were also infected, an admission freeze was imposed there about 14 days ago. That’s why the hospital is currently treating just 40 patients, 9 of them with covid 19 disease. This corresponds to a utilization rate of 16 percent, said regiomed chief executive officer alexander schmidkte on wednesday.

The emergency room is still open, even if patients are admitted to other hospitals in the regiomed network or to neighboring hospitals. The coburg hospital also currently treats patients from the sonneberg area. 17 of these patients are in the normal ward in coburg, four need intensive care.

All 600 employees of the sonneberg clinic have since been struck off, schmidtke said. About two-thirds of the test results are available," explains schmidtke. 17 employees are currently in quarantine because they have been tested positive.

In an interview, regiomed’s chief hygienist, professor klaus-dieter zastrow, described employees who infect patients as "stupid" designated. This choice of words had caused quite a stir. Alexander schmidtke has been trying to limit the damage for about a week now, according to his own words: there was written information for all employees and a telephone conference that everyone could join. Zastrow had "after a serious talk" written apology to the staff for his choice of words.

"I did not want to make the mistake of mr prof. Zastrow to repeat and discuss internal issues in public", explains schmidtke. In the meantime, however, he has come to the conclusion that he, too, must set a clear example. "This is not the corporate culture that I would like to see at regiomed and that I stand for – and anyone who knows me can confirm this." Schmidtke admitted that he had received the interview in question in advance, but had not reviewed it: it had "unfortunately slipped through between various crisis meetings". The formulations in question had otherwise never stood still, the managing director emphasized.

Schmidtke also said on wednesday, however, that there had certainly been employees whose behavior had given cause for criticism. Employees "have been found in the break room in large groups without observing the minimum distance and without mouth-nose protection". Zastrow wanted to draw attention to this misconduct.

The zastrow interview had also caused uproar on social networks. There was also the accusation that the employees did not have enough protective equipment at their disposal. However, schmidtke and managing director robert wieland rejected this: the supply of simple and high-quality masks as well as other protective equipment had always been given. Although preparations were made to reprocess used masks in the event of delivery shortfalls, this was never necessary.