Schwerin/Berlin (dpa/mv) - Health Minister Stefanie Drese (SPD) wants to ensure that the planned hospital reform includes differences in the population structure. "Even in particularly sparsely populated regions, security of care and quality of care must be guaranteed in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed principle of equal living conditions," said the politician on Thursday in Berlin, where she attended the meeting of the federal-state group on hospital reform. The reform must not ignore the needs of rural regions.

All in all, she welcomed the fact that undesirable developments that arose from the system of flat-rate payments per case should be eliminated. In the future, costs for the provision of health services are to be refinanced at a flat rate so that care is less dependent on the number of cases. According to Drese, this is particularly important for elementary services such as accident care, obstetrics and pediatric medicine. "A hospital with a pediatric ward needs to receive some financial reimbursement without showing that those beds are occupied 24 hours a day."