Start of strike at university hospital Bonn nurses go on indefinite strike
After the expiry of the ultimatum of the trade union Verdi to the government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the employers' association of the state, employees of all six university hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia stopped working on Wednesday. Patients had to be transferred.
Starting with the early shift, several wards were closed, including a dermatological ward, a surgical ward and a radiotherapy ward. According to the Verdi union secretary responsible for Bonn, Arno Appelhoff, more wards could follow in the next few days, because this time the strike is open-ended. As a result, some patients have been discharged early and the admission of some new patients has been postponed indefinitely. Within the hospital, there were transfers to other wards.
Berlin Charité as a model
"We want to achieve a generous bed blocking and thus restrict hospital operations. Negotiations for a new collective agreement must be resumed," Appelhoff demands. He hopes that the negotiating partners will reach an agreement soon - similar to the one reached at the Berlin Charité in autumn 2021. He specifies: "It is not about money, but about relieving the employees“.
The demand includes, among other things, the establishment of a ratio of how many staff are responsible for how many patients. For the maternity ward, for example, verdi demands one-to-one care in the delivery room. This means that one midwife is responsible for one patient. At the moment, one midwife has to look after three to four expectant mothers.
Nurses professionally overburdened
The current tense situation affects many wards and is the result of years of job cuts, criticises Jörg Gößmann, who has been working as a nurse for 16 years. "I like working with people and love my job, but I can't do it the way I once learned in training and would like to do it." He works in psychiatry at the UKB and like many of his colleagues, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from Wednesday.
Another reason for the decision to take this step, he said, was the fact that he was repeatedly loaned out to other wards on a temporary basis and did not feel qualified to do so. "It is a big difference whether I look after a patient in psychiatry or cardiology. Both have very different needs," he explains.
Clemens Platzköster, the commercial director and deputy chairman of the board of the UKB, admits understanding for the work stoppage of Gößmann and his colleagues: "Striking is a fundamental right. However, daily coordination with the strike management is unavoidable in order to maintain patient care." The patients' need for treatment should not be unnecessarily strained, he said. He therefore also appeals to the bargaining partners to continue negotiations.
Further actions planned
However, it is not expected that decisions will be reached very quickly - for example, before the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia. verdi is also convinced of this and is planning further actions, such as a flash mob in the city centre of Bonn. "We don't just want to show our displeasure on the Venusberg, we want to inform more people," says Sandra Kaspar, herself a nurse at the UKB and a member of Verdi since last year. She is also campaigning on behalf of her daughter, who is also currently training to become a nurse, but is already frequently questioning her choice of profession: "Only if the working conditions become more attractive can we retain our junior staff and inspire new young people to take up the profession".
Original text: Julia Rosner
Translation: Mareike Graepel
