Clinic Völklingen: Night services now with two nurses!

The SHG Clinic in Völklingen is faced with critical allegations regarding working conditions in your house. In the reaction to a petition that was initiated by a caregiver and reached almost 500 signatures, the clinic directorate rejected all accusations about an alleged lack of personnel. Administrative director Oliver Adolph said that the number of employees had even increased, and emphasized that there were some layoffs, but there was no massive departure of workers. Managing Director Bernd Mege contradicted the claim that dangerous care processes had taken place due to the lack of personnel.

In the petition, dissatisfaction in the field of intensive care medicine is particularly addressed. Two stations were merged here, which also tightened the situation. Nursing director Sabine Keller made it clear that there were induction concepts for new employees. Nevertheless, the perspective of the works council, which describes a tightening of the situation, could be closer to the circumstances in reality. Adolph thinks that the current restructuring is necessary to secure the clinic's chances of survival. The financial deficit could be halved from around nine million euros to five million euros, which may be progress. However, Managing Director Mege admitted that not all employees were included in the restructuring process. The deputy medical director Jennifer Kennel spoke out for a constructive dialogue to improve the working atmosphere.

new milestone in care

The SHG clinics in Völklingen have also taken a significant step to relieve nursing staff: they are the first hospital in Germany in which nurses no longer work alone at night. This measure results from an agreement signed between Saarland Heilstätten GmbH (SHG) and the United Service Union (Verdi). When signing this agreement, SHG managing director Bernd Mege and representatives of Verdi were present.

This new regulation ensures that at least two nurses will work on the ward at night. While this measure has already been implemented in almost all stations, post -personization should take place on a single station as quickly as possible. This is seen as a significant improvement for patient care and as a relief for the employees. In this way, the clinic, together with Verdi, pursues the goal of optimizing working conditions in the nursing sector and increasing security for patients.

Verdi commented on the previous conditions, according to which almost two thirds of the nursing staff in Germany had to work alone on the ward at night. In these cases, the nursing staff look after an average of 26 patients, and at each sixth station there are more than 30. In the past, these circumstances have led to dangerous situations that could have been avoided with more staff. Verdi reports that 60 percent of the respondents experienced dangerous situations in a night service check in the past four weeks. SHG managing director Alfons Vogtel emphasized the urgency of adequate financing of the desired measures in order to ensure the quality of care in the clinic in the long term.