Hospital.Help

Stuttgart – The hospitals in the southwest are insisting on a change to the federal hospital reform in the last few meters of the legislative process.

In a letter, the CEO of the Baden-Württemberg Hospital Association (BWKG), District Administrator Heiner Scheffold, appeals to members of the Bundestag from the southwest not to agree to the draft law. First, the financing issue must be resolved and there must be agreement with the federal states on the content of the reform.

Fundamental questions regarding content are still controversial between the federal and state governments. The law has so far provided “no relief for the dramatic financial situation of hospitals in Germany and Baden-Württemberg,” criticized Scheffold.

85 percent of hospitals in Baden-Württemberg expected a deficit by 2024. The cumulative deficit will be 900 million euros. The hospital financing system also does not take into account the above-average wage levels that are paid in the local hospitals in the southwest.

Bed numbers low in the southwest

In addition, the number of beds in Baden-Württemberg is very low compared to other countries – it describes the ratio of beds to residents. “The centralization and structural restructuring of the hospitals called for by the Federal Minister of Health has already been implemented here in many cases,” emphasized Scheffold.

The head of the association warns that the municipal authorities’ reserves will be used up by the end of 2024 at the latest. If deficits of the current magnitude still had to be made up for, this would massively restrict the municipalities’ financial scope, for example for daycare centers or local transport.

Reform should create uniform quality standards

With a hospital reform that is controversial among the states, the federal government actually wants to reduce the financial pressure on hospitals and establish uniform quality rules. To this end, the current remuneration should be changed with flat rates for treatment cases.

In the future, clinics should receive 60 percent of the remuneration for providing certain offers. The basis for financing by the health insurance companies should also be more precisely defined “performance groups”. They should describe clinic treatments in more detail and set minimum requirements. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de