Marburg (dpa/lhe) – Several hundred tumor patients have recently been irradiated at the particle therapy facility in Marburg. According to the operator, Rhön-Klinikum AG, an average of just over 300 patients per year were treated in 2020 and 2021. Since the start of the facility in 2015, “unfortunately far fewer patients have received radiation than we all thought and hoped for,” explained Rhön CEO Christian Höftberger recently. Despite all the efforts of the employees, the plant was in deficit.
According to a Rhön spokeswoman, there is no fixed number of patients who would have to be treated in order to no longer be in deficit. “On the one hand, there are different types of radiation with different reimbursements, on the other hand, the cost side is currently not calculable – for example because of the exploding energy prices and incalculable costs for repairs and spare parts.”
Statements by Rhön boss Höftberger on a possible exit from the system, including in view of an imminent shortage of spare parts and energy, had recently caused a stir. He then emphasized that there were no decisions to close it. In 2006, when Rhön bought the privatized university hospital in Gießen and Marburg, it made a commitment to the state to offer particle therapy.
