German hospitals 'overwhelmed by E.coli'

Hospitals in northern Germany are being overwhelmed as they struggle to provide enough beds and medical care for patients stricken by an outbreak of E.coli, the German health minister admitted today.

“The situation in the hospitals is intense,” minister Daniel Bahr told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that clinics outside of Hamburg and northern Germany – the epicentre of the E.coli outbreak – should start taking in ill persons from the north.