Hospital.Help

Berlin The Charité University Hospital Berlin is under fire. The magazine star and RTL are reporting today on two surveys in which doctors are in part very critical of the university hospital. In addition, reporters have uncovered abuses at the hospital over the past few months. The Charité press office rejects the criticism.

One survey comes from the Berlin-Brandenburg regional association of the Marburger Bund (MB). The association sees a need for action in the training of future doctors. This is particularly true with regard to the practical year (PJ) in the hospital at the end of medical studies.

In a non-representative survey conducted by the Berlin regional association of the doctors’ union, almost two-thirds of respondents said they would not recommend it as a teaching hospital for the PJ.

Our survey among medical students in their practical year (PJ) at the Charité confirms the results of a nationwide survey conducted by the Marburger Bund last year, said the chairman of the Berlin-Brandenburg regional association, Peter Bobbert.

There is a problem throughout Germany that the final phase of studies (PJ) is often not organized and designed to optimally prepare students for their everyday working life as a doctor. Something urgently needs to change here.

For the survey Between Claim and Reality: Teaching in the PJ, 235 people who are currently doing their practical year in Berlin or who have done so in the past two years were interviewed in July and August of this year. Only a small proportion had already completed their PJ without a PJ section in Berlin.

A spokesman for the Charité announced that the survey of students in the PJ was baseless. It was methodologically flawed, had an insufficient data basis and was therefore misleading. Over the past two years, more than 3,000 medical students have completed at least one training phase of the PJ at the Charité and its teaching hospitals.

One of the questions asked in the survey was: Would you recommend your fellow students to complete a term at the Charité? The practical year in medical studies is divided into three so-called 16-week term periods, which can be completed at different hospitals.

A clear majority of respondents who answered this question would not recommend it. 72 answered no and 41 answered yes. On the other hand, 112 of those surveyed answered yes and 48 answered no to the question “Would you recommend your fellow students to complete a term at a Berlin clinic?”. The survey offered the option to skip questions, so not all participants answered all of them.

The online survey therefore appears to be largely influenced by professional politics. The Charité has been conducting representative and differentiated evaluations in the PJ for years, the Charité spokesperson continued. These evaluations, which were carried out as part of quality management, showed a different picture.

According to data based on the evaluations of over 1,400 PJ students per year, the vast majority judge that they felt comfortable or very comfortable in their respective department during the PJ in the Charité facilities, said the spokesman.

Around two thirds would recommend the respective term or the Charité. Around two thirds also stated that the term or the practical year at the Charité helped them further in their training.

star-Survey without clear author

In the other survey, the star from an internal survey among doctors at the Charité on the quality of care, in which 200 doctors from several locations and clinics took part, from beginners to senior physicians. The survey is small compared to the total number of employees – around 5,700 doctors and scientists work at the Charité. It remains unclear who initiated the survey.

More than half of the more than 200 respondents in this internal survey gave the grades unsatisfactory or insufficient when asked how they rate the quality of patient care under the current working conditions. 44 percent rated it unsatisfactory and eight percent rated it insufficient. 29 percent answered with sufficient.

A lawyer from Charité responded star and RTLThe Charité was not aware of either survey and their results were not representative anyway. The lawyer also referred to rankings according to which the Charité was regularly voted one of the best hospitals internationally.

The University Hospital also spoke out today. According to the report, the star-Article contains inappropriate information, it generalizes inappropriately and sometimes classifies connections in a misleading way. This creates a false picture of the reality in our clinic, which the Charité protests against.

Tonight RTL a report by Stern Investigative About the Charité (8:15 p.m.) on RTL or in a live stream on RTL+. What will be reported there in detail is still unclear. However, it seems to be about a number of patient cases, among other things.

The hospital has already made it clear before the report that it is bound by medical confidentiality. There is no release statement. In this respect, the criticism cannot be refuted.

However, patient care is guaranteed on the wards of the Charité in accordance with relevant guidelines and medical needs. Unlike the star claims that there is no structural overload of doctors at the Charité. Patient surveys show a very high level of satisfaction with the medical and nursing care and performance at the Charité. © may/dpa/aerzteblatt.de