“A path of devastation”, “clear cut”, “destructive”: Bavaria warns of the federal government’s hospital reform plans with drastic words. But how can the clinics be set up in a stable manner?
Munich (dpa/lby) – The Bavarian state government, the districts and cities as well as the Bavarian Hospital Society (BKG) are jointly and vehemently fighting the hospital reform planned by the federal government. After a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, top representatives from all sides warned in sometimes drastic terms of the devastating consequences for the Bavarian hospital landscape.
District President Thomas Karmasin (CSU) spoke of a “path of devastation” that this reform would draw through Bavaria. 40 percent of all maternity wards would fall victim to the reform, he argued. City council chairman Markus Pannermayr (CSU) also warned of deficits in the care of stroke patients.
The managing director of the Bavarian Hospital Society, Roland Engehausen, said the consequences of the reform would be “destructive”. In Bavaria, many clinics would no longer be able to ensure full care, there was a risk of “deforestation”. Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) called on Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to come to Bavaria for a “summit of practitioners”.
The reason for the reform plans are the major financial problems of many hospitals. Although these should work like commercial enterprises, they cannot set their prices themselves, unlike companies. Instead, the clinics are largely financed by flat rates per case – a highly complicated billing system for fixed amounts that are paid for treatments and operations.
Pannermayr is currently warning of impending deficits in the millions at many clinics. “This is really a dramatic development, because bankruptcies cannot be ruled out with these numbers.” He and BKG Managing Director Engehausen demanded, among other things, that future costs should also be taken into account when financing the clinic.
Last week, Holetschek presented a report he had commissioned, according to which the reform plans would endanger emergency care and regular inpatient care at every eighth hospital in Bavaria. According to Holetschek, the experts came to the conclusion that 53 of the approximately 400 Bavarian hospitals (13 percent) would be downgraded as a result of the reform plans. In the future, these could then only offer outpatient-inpatient basic care, for example in the case of diabetes or circulatory problems. In extreme cases, the CSU politician has therefore already threatened to sue in Karlsruhe.
