Munich (dpa / lby) – Bavaria’s clinics fear that health care in hospitals could collapse in view of the current crisis. “The cost explosion is hitting the clinics with full force,” said the managing director of the Bavarian Hospital Society (BKG), Roland Engehausen, on Thursday in Munich. Laws that the federal government urgently needs to adapt prevent clinics from being able to compensate for the high costs.
Engehausen called for inflation compensation for the hospitals in the form of a four percent surcharge on all hospital bills. After that, the clinics would have to be able to negotiate a settlement “without any cover”.
Above all, the rising energy prices, for which there is no surcharge, are problematic. Medical items are also becoming increasingly expensive. However, the current legal situation prevents hospitals from negotiating compensation with the health insurance companies at all, said Engehausen. This year, the clinics are only likely to increase the costs per treatment by 2.3 percent, while so-called material costs have risen by an average of 8 percent and energy costs have more than doubled.
The managing director of the Munich clinic, Axel Fischer, said the hospitals had been in a crisis for a long time. The staff work under heavy load. “We are in a shortage economy at the moment.” Unlike private companies, however, hospitals cannot simply downsize their offerings and shift to more lucrative offerings.