Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – The situation in the children’s hospitals remains tense. According to the medical director of the University Hospital Frankfurt, Prof. Jürgen Graf, the problem is currently acute, “but anything but new. For about a decade in autumn and winter we have had a growing disproportion between the number of children to be cared for and the existing capacities,” said Graf.
The number of infections this winter is probably only slightly higher than in previous years. But there are still fewer staff than in previous years. In addition to the general loss of capacity, there is sick leave among employees “to an extent that we have never seen before”. For at least ten years, paediatrics has been “structured in such a way that many services are not worthwhile,” both in the outpatient (pediatric practices) and inpatient (hospital) sectors.
“The problem is that there is no quick solution,” said Graf, “it’s a real structural problem.” Suggestions, for example that colleagues from adult medicine should help out, are hardly feasible – there are also capacity bottlenecks there at the moment. Graf sees an opportunity in the hospital financing reform recently proposed by a government commission. But that is a process that will take several years, said Graf.
The model is not intended to replace flat-rate billing (DRGs), but to develop it further. One component is the creation of “service groups”, another is the classification of clinics into different “levels”. “We urgently need to initiate a real reform – urgently for the service providers, but also urgently for the population,” said Graf. Pediatrics would also benefit from this.
