In the opinion of Bavaria’s Medical President Gerald Quitterer, far too little progress has been made in the reform announcements by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). Quitterer criticized in Munich before the Bavarian Doctors’ Day at the weekend in Lindau on Lake Constance that nothing is moving, especially when it comes to promoting doctors and hospital reform. He has the impression that the funding of practices in particular has “fallen completely behind,” said Quitterer.
The plans for the so-called Health Care Strengthening Act contain a lot from which practices could benefit, explained Quitterer. But the criticism from specialist organizations and also from federal states has led less to improvements to the draft law than to a standstill, complained Bavaria’s medical president. The same applies to the plans for a comprehensive hospital reform.
Vice President Andreas Botzlar once again warned of a “disorderly death of hospitals” if something doesn’t happen quickly with hospital reform. Federal Health Minister Lauterbach had announced that he wanted to base the payment of clinics much more closely on where hospitals were needed and what quality they provided. At the same time, payment based on the amount of services provided should play a significantly smaller role in the future. But Botzlar doesn’t go far enough. He called for payment based on flat rates per case to be replaced by a system in which hospitals are paid in full for their actual costs.
The State Medical Association also wants to use its conference in Lindau to promote an objection solution to organ donation. This would mean that basically anyone who does not expressly object is an organ donor. The aim is to increase the number of organ donations. Bavaria’s Health Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU) also recently campaigned for a contradiction solution. In recent years there have been repeated debates in the Bundestag about a corresponding change in the law. However, a political majority has never been found for this so far.