Many clinics in Germany complain about acute financial difficulties. However, Health Minister Lauterbach considers a large hospital death to be impossible. But his reform plans are encountering resistance from the states.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach considers major hospital deaths to be unlikely despite cost increases and a number of insolvency cases in Germany. “I don’t think 2024 will be the year of hospital deaths. I think that’s impossible,” said Lauterbach, who was online for the German Hospital Day in Düsseldorf. In his opinion, the number of hospitals that will be eliminated as locations will be manageable.
The federal government is giving around nine billion euros
Lauterbach pointed out that the federal government would provide another 3.2 billion euros in energy aid by spring 2024. In addition, according to the plans, hospitals would receive an additional six billion euros for care. According to the ministry, the total amount is more than nine billion euros.
The SPD politician spoke of a bundle of laws that were also being worked on together with the federal states. “We don’t do anything against the countries,” he said. The aim of the hospital reform is to avert unsystematic hospital deaths.
Almost every second clinic wants to reduce offerings
At the meeting, industry representatives referred to extensive cost increases and urgently called for remedial action. The President of the Association of Hospital Directors in Germany, Josef Düllings, spoke of a current disaster with increasing bankruptcies of essential hospitals. After the corona pandemic, high inflation, tariff increases and investment support that has been too low for decades, many houses are being hit particularly hard. And this is not a management failure, he emphasized.
According to a survey, two thirds of general hospitals rate their current economic situation as bad or very bad. As a result, 42 percent of general hospitals expected to have to reduce their range of services in the next six months, the German Hospital Institute said.
Federal states dissatisfied
When it comes to hospital reform, the states obviously still need to talk. In a joint letter to Lauterbach, the ARD capital studio Baden-Württemberg Health Minister Manfred Lucha calls the results so far “very disappointing”. At the next federal-state meeting on November 23rd there should only be “a political debate that is open to time and results” without a subsequent press conference, it was said.
It had become clear that the states did not want to support the plans in their current form. Before the next meeting with Lauterbach, they are now increasing the pressure.
Seven points of criticism
Both sides have been negotiating Lauterbach’s reform plans for months. In the letter, Lucha names seven specific points of criticism. Among other things, the planned financing of the reform is incomprehensible and there is no bureaucratic relief. In addition, the states are demanding exceptions to the quality criteria planned by Lauterbach.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann reiterated that the federal government must act in view of wage increases in hospitals. As announced, NRW will present an initiative to financially strengthen hospitals to the Federal Council this month. The NRW hospital planning with greater specialization and coordination of hospitals in the individual regions will be in place as planned by the end of next year.
Agreement on key points of the reform
After months of struggle, Lauterbach and the states only agreed on key points of the hospital reform in July. On the one hand, it is intended to put the financing of the clinics on a more stable basis by moving away from the system of payment based on treated cases. It is also intended to increase quality through greater medical specialization.