Despite the alarming numbers, politicians are largely united behind the Munich Clinic, the company for the five city hospitals. The prevailing opinion is that the city must absorb the financial losses. In addition, however, there is a majority in favor of revising the currently applicable rehabilitation and medical concept from 2014. Nobody wants to make a commitment yet, but the Munich Clinic is considering reducing the number of beds and closing or merging wards.
Munich Clinic’s losses are estimated at 36 million euros in 2022 alone. This emerges from non-public documents of the city council, which are available to the SZ. The clinic construction program will devour a total of around one billion euros. Many beds are empty because there are not enough staff. In addition, there are far fewer patients than expected. Left parliamentary group leader Stefan Jagel, who is also a co-referee in the health department and thus the link between the city council and the administration, expects the proposals for restructuring to be put on the table in the first quarter of 2023. The employees of the hospitals must be involved in a participatory process, he demanded.
According to Jagel, the federal level plays a role in the misery of the city clinic, but he also sees home-grown problems. The nursing shortage, for example, is “not just a structural problem, but also one of the management”. They are responsible for improving working conditions. A new medical concept must be based on the supply situation, not on economic criteria. In general, over the years, the clinic had calculated too positive plan figures, criticized Jagel.
The FDP also sees internal errors in a “disaster between external crises and domestic problems”. The corona pandemic and the increased energy prices could only partially explain the misery, said parliamentary group leader Jörg Hoffmann. “After so many attempts at reorganization and unsuccessful efforts, the question arises as to whether the management and the supervision by the health department are still able to deal with the upcoming problems with fresh ideas.” Hoffmann would prefer to see the clinics back under the responsibility of the finance department.
For the CSU health expert and parliamentary group deputy Hans Theiss, it would be a good start if the coalition would tell the citizens “how much money is at stake” and commit to paying for it. It also annoys him that the Munich clinic now has to take out loans itself in order to offset at least part of its losses. In the end, the city would have to pay for it again. “I see that as a shadow budget.” The CSU is fully behind the city hospitals and their care of patients who are not lucrative for private clinics. He does not want to comment specifically on the plans for a new medical concept. The CSU will look at all proposals “with an open mind”, only one thing must not happen: that the supply deteriorates.
The coalition of SPD and Greens leaves not the slightest doubt that they will fully support the hospitals. “We are absolutely behind the Munich clinic,” said SPD city councilor Kathrin Abele. This is also the point of view of Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD), who, as the head of the supervisory board, did not want to comment on internal figures or concepts at the moment. Abele emphasized that the employees in the municipal hospitals “provide services of general interest and medicine at the highest level”. A lot has already been done in Munich, for example to improve the situation in nursing. “At the same time, however, we finally need a sustainable financing model for municipal clinics from the federal government.”
That is the task of SPD Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, said Florian Roth, Green City Councilor and Clinic Supervisory Board. The two and a half years of the pandemic have shown how important public hospitals are. Therefore, the city will also pay for the losses. The focus must also be on decisively improving the situation for the caregivers. “Without scissors in mind” you have to discuss the options and also consider whether you really have to offer everything at all locations. For this one should also go to the current rehabilitation and medical concept. “Not every building block there is set in stone. That we stand by the clinic, however.”