Bavaria: Holetschek: Hospital planning must remain a matter for the federal states

The hospital reform is to come, and the health ministers of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia are insisting on the freedom of decision of the states in hospital planning.

Bavaria: Holetschek: Hospital planning must remain a matter for the federal states

The hospital reform is to come, and the health ministers of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia are insisting on the freedom of decision of the states in hospital planning.

Munich (dpa / lby) - From the point of view of Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU), hospital planning should remain the responsibility of the federal states. The minister said this on the occasion of the presentation of a key issues paper on hospital reform announced by the Federal Ministry of Health. He finds support from North Rhine-Westphalia's Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU).

Which hospitals offer which care at which location is and will remain the sovereignty of the federal states, said Holetschek on Sunday and referred to the Basic Law. "Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia are firmly opposed to centralized egalitarianism, planned economic structures and excessive bureaucracy from Berlin offices." The federal government must ensure adequate remuneration for the clinics."

In addition, the federal government should not neglect rural areas. The politicians demanded that there must continue to be nationwide and high-quality inpatient hospital care. In Bavaria, more than half of the people live in rural areas. "People expect comprehensive, flexible and easily accessible care," says Holetschek.

His NRW colleague Laumann said: "There can be no "business as usual" in the hospital landscape. It is good that the federal government, which is responsible for the operating costs of the hospitals, now wants to fundamentally revise the system of case flat rates." But: The federal states would have to remain responsible for hospital planning." The hospital structures in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, are very different and can hardly be compared with each other.

North Rhine-Westphalia has started to implement the new hospital strengthening plan 2022 nationwide. An additional 2.5 billion euros are to be made available from the state budget for this purpose. In the future, planning will no longer be based on the number of beds, but on the basis of so-called service areas and groups. According to the information, the new hospital plan was approved by mutual agreement in spring 2022.

Bavaria has invested more than 25 billion euros in its hospitals since the introduction of dual financing, and the funding level is currently around 643 million euros per year, according to Holetschek. It is clear "that we must continue to have the opportunity to decide on hospital planning ourselves".

Among other things, Holetschek and Laumann expect the hospital reform to result in better remuneration for inpatient treatment structures, complete financing of care services and full compensation for price increases. In addition: reducing bureaucracy, maintaining the dual hospital financing system and funding programs for digitization and climate protection. The ministers agree that the reform announced by Lauterbach should not be "pushed through by parliamentary group amendments, as he is currently doing in other legislative processes".