Erfurt (dpa/th) – Around 350 employees of Thuringian hospitals protested in front of the Thuringian state parliament in Erfurt in view of rising costs and demanded more financial support. The Thuringian State Hospital Society (LKHG) and Thuringia’s Health Minister Heike Werner (left) demanded an urgent need for inflation compensation and further financial aid for Thuringian hospitals at the rally on Wednesday.
The LKHG CEO, Gundula Werner, attested to an implementation problem for the federal government: “Although the health ministers of the federal states voted unanimously in June 2022 for inflation compensation and called on Minister Lauterbach to act immediately, the federal government is – shortly before the start of the next Corona autumn – still idle.” The hospitals need economic planning security as quickly as possible, otherwise the clinics would find themselves in serious economic difficulties across the board.
According to the LKHG, there will be a funding gap of around 71 million euros for Thuringian hospitals in 2022. In 2023, there will be additional unscheduled energy costs of around 280 million euros.
“We expect that the decision taken unanimously by the Conference of Health Ministers in June 2022 to support hospitals with inflation compensation will finally be implemented and that the hospitals will be economically secure,” said Health Minister Heike Werner (left). The Thuringian hospitals urgently need additional financial support so that they can continue to concentrate on their core competence, the treatment of patients.
