Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) - From the point of view of the local players, nothing stands in the way of the merger of the university clinics in Heidelberg and Mannheim as the core of an internationally competitive healthcare location. After the positive results of economic, medical and legal tests, the state government must finally make a fundamental decision on the merger, demanded a group of affected scientists, university leaders and the Lord Mayor of Mannheim, Peter Kurz (SPD), on Thursday in Stuttgart. Only after this decision is the competition law examination of the association of previously competing houses possible. Around 2.3 million people in the Rhine-Neckar region alone can benefit from better care and faster implementation of scientific findings in products.
For the university hospital, which has so far been supported by the city of Mannheim, the merger represents a way out of the deficit of 30 to 40 million euros per year. Kurz said that a merger could break even by 2030.
The coalition must get rid of the perception that it is a North Baden regional project, said Hanns-Peter Knaebel, chairman of the university council in Heidelberg. The project not only strengthens the nationwide, but also the international competitiveness of the state. The health sector, which is particularly strong in the Rhine-Neckar region, could become the new leading industry in the south-west alongside car and mechanical engineering.
