Hospital.Help

Hanover Nationwide, municipalities, hospitals and contract doctors are currently positioning themselves and lobbying their state governments to send the planned hospital reform to the mediation committee.

Lower Saxony’s municipalities and hospitals today appealed to Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) to ensure that the state votes in the Federal Council for changes to the planned hospital reform.

The way the Bundestag passed the law, it is not practical, said the chairman of the Lower Saxony Hospital Association (NKG), Rainer Rempe: The interests of the states, hospitals and municipalities are not sufficiently taken into account.

The President of the Lower Saxony Association of Cities and Municipalities, Marco Trips, added that the prerequisite for the success of the hospital reform is a clear solution to the financing issue. This is necessary to ensure a planned start to structural change.

In a letter to Weil, the associations criticized, among other things, the fact that the planned adjustment to the remuneration system would not contribute to the economic stabilization of the clinics. In addition, a further build-up of bureaucracy is foreseeable. The vote in the Federal Council is scheduled for November 22nd.

A recent survey by the NKG recently showed that more than every second clinic in the country (56 percent) sees their economic existence as at risk until the hospital reform takes effect, probably in 2027. One in four hospitals (25 percent) are already planning to reduce services or limit the range of care due to the difficult economic situation.

Lower Saxony’s Health Minister Andreas Philippi (SPD) described the controversial hospital reform in the state parliament last week as absolutely necessary. However, he left Lower Saxony’s voting behavior in the Federal Council open.

The board of the Hesse Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVH) appealed to the Hessian state government to call the Mediation Committee on the Hospital Care Improvement Act (KHVVG). It was said that outpatient and inpatient care in Hesse could only be made future-proof by making improvements to the current law.

From the KVH’s point of view, the current draft of the KHVVG does not sufficiently take into account the regional characteristics and requirements as well as future challenges. Effective cross-sector care is also not possible. Adjustments are therefore urgently needed. © hil/sb/aerzteblatt.de