Very small chairs and tables, a sink at knee height – everything is tiny in the new daycare center (Kita) at the Munich Clinic (Mük) in Schwabing. Children under the age of three have been looked after here since autumn. Ten plastic tubs stand on a shelf in the entrance. There are little slippers inside that wait for their owners every morning. Ten children are currently looked after by three teachers. The daycare center is designed for twelve places.
The mini-daycare center was officially opened on Wednesday and is run by Sira Childcare. The “Mükies” daycare center is intended exclusively for Mük employees and is the first facility that the Munich Clinic itself launched. The desire for daycare centers at clinics is expressed again and again; the need is great.
Women still find it difficult to get management positions in hospitals. The compatibility of family and career is often an obstacle to even applying for a managerial position. The proportion of women at the Munich Clinic is currently 75 percent. But only eleven percent of them are senior doctors.
“That’s why it’s a big goal for Mük to further expand family-friendly care options,” says managing director Petra Geistberger. The employees are the key to success, and the new daycare center is also a symbol that Mük continues to assume responsibility. The employees of the Munich Clinic now have around 180 daycare places available. In the other facilities there are so-called occupancy rights for their families, and now the municipal clinic also has its own daycare center.
Mayor Verena Dietl (SPD) also emphasizes the importance of sufficient care options at the clinics. Giving recognition to doctors and nurses is not enough. If you want to keep your employees, she said at the opening, you need “attractive locations”. So living space. A topic that, according to Dietl, should be further promoted, for example on the clinic site in Schwabing. And we need enough daycare places. There is not enough of it, especially for little ones under the age of three.
The “Mükies” spend a lot of time in the fresh air: things go particularly well in the children’s bus, which Mayor Verena Dietl (right) and managing director Petra Geistberger (left) push on opening day.
(Photo: Munich Clinic)
Jana Huber, 32, is very happy. She got a place with the Mükies for her one and a half year old son. Her husband is a doctor at the Bogenhausen Clinic. She particularly likes the fact that this daycare center is so small. “Everything is very personal here, the care is individual.” The new daycare center is also a “great relief” for doctor Alexander Romagna, who also works at the Bogenhausen clinic. We definitely need more facilities like this, says the 39-year-old. Because it’s not enough to have a good job. A daycare center like this makes the “workplace attractive”.
However, both agree that the daycare hours, which are currently open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., still need to be adjusted. Managing director Petra Geistberger is aware of the problem and needs to consider how the care times can be extended.
It is bright in the rooms, zebras and elephants decorate the walls. A fire engine and of course an ambulance with small wheels are parked here. There is a changing table in the washroom: each child has their own drawer with matching diapers and pacifiers. A look into the bedroom makes you think of the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: There are small beds with cloud bed linen next to each other. “So that the little ones sleep well, we even project a few stars onto the ceiling,” says teacher Olcay Güngör.
The 42-year-old was involved in the planning from the start and set up the rooms herself with her two colleagues. There aren’t a lot of toys lying around – quite intentionally. The children should be allowed to be creative themselves. In addition, says Sira managing director Christina Ramgraber, it is particularly important for children under the age of three to create a family-like atmosphere. The fact that this daycare center is so small is ideal.