Well over half of the clinics in Germany expect losses in the closing balance for 2022. A hospital reform is intended to remedy the situation, the health ministers of the federal and state governments are meeting this week for initial consultations. The hospital society expects hardly any improvements from the plans presented so far.
Before the first consultations of the health ministers of the federal and state governments on the hospital reform, the German Hospital Society (DKG) called for more funds than currently planned. The reform plans drawn up by a commission of experts were based on a "false basic premise," said DKG CEO Gerald Gass to t-online. "According to the Commission, the reform should only redistribute the current funds."
Gass complained that the priority announced by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach for medicine over the economy has so far remained an empty promise. The economic pressure on the hospitals is enormous. 60 percent of the hospitals expect "some deep red numbers" for the year 2022. In 2021, the proportion was still 43 percent. In 2023, too, the cost of houses would “rise twice as fast” as government prices, said Gass. He warned that hospital deaths "are expected to reach a new peak this year".
According to the proposals of the government commission on hospital care, the clinics should in future be rewarded according to three new criteria instead of just flat rates per case: provision services, care levels and service groups. Among other things, fixed amounts should flow for the provision of staff, an emergency room or necessary medical technology.
Patient advocates called for more consideration for the regions before the consultations. "Large hospitals in metropolitan areas are catching on. Small hospitals in the country are left behind. Far too often, the federal and state governments have let this game run its course. Hospital reform must be used to prevent medical care from bleeding out in the region," said the board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, the "Rheinische Post". The focus must finally be on the patient, and the planned maintenance costs and investments must follow this goal. "Especially in rural areas, people need tailor-made offers for stroke, heart attack, cancer therapy and geriatric medicine. This will undoubtedly cost money."
