Hospital.Help

Jena/Erfurt According to the Thuringian Medical Association, small hospitals in regions affected by population decline need new concepts to secure the future of their locations. This is no longer just about inpatient care, said Chamber President Hans-Jörg Bittrich to the German Press Agency. It is necessary to connect with outpatient care provided by family doctors, nursing services, physiotherapists and pharmacies.

Planning and organizing sensible, cross-sectoral care is precisely the task that now faces us in Thuringia. To achieve this, the state, municipalities, representatives of practicing physicians and the hospital lobby must work together.

In Thuringia, the first closure of a rural hospital due to bankruptcy, according to the Ministry of Health, is currently making headlines. The private Sternbach Clinic in Schleiz (Saale-Orla district) filed for bankruptcy at the end of June due to high losses and wanted to find financially strong partners to continue operations.

However, this failed and the 100-bed hospital will be closed at the end of August. 190 employees are affected. This raises the question of future health care in the region on the border with Bavaria.

According to the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), other Thuringian hospitals in regions with shrinking and aging populations are also facing challenges. This applies not least to the difficulties in finding the necessary specialist staff, said TK regional manager Guido Dressel.

A lack of skilled workers also played a role in the decision to close in Schleiz. The staffing problem should not be underestimated, especially for doctors, confirmed Chamber President Bittrich.

Like Dressel, the doctor believes that a timely joint analysis of outpatient and inpatient care structures in the individual Thuringian districts is superfluous. Hospital planning alone does not reflect reality, said Dressel. One solution for a poorly utilized hospital location could be, for example, a type of polyclinic with specialists and a small ward for patients who require medical monitoring.

For Bittrich, because of the ageing population, rural hospitals that connect sectors must primarily provide basic care in internal medicine and surgery, for example to care for diabetics or cardiovascular patients and to treat injuries from accidents or falls.

The houses would also have to be connected to an emergency service in order to take people with acute serious illnesses such as heart attacks or strokes to hospitals with the appropriate skills and equipment. Physiotherapy, a pharmacy and a social service would also be useful, and it would be absolutely essential to ensure primary care.

Up to now, hospital planning and demand planning for the distribution of doctor’s positions for general practitioners have run parallel in Germany. The respective association of statutory health insurance physicians and the health insurance companies are responsible for outpatient demand planning, while hospital planning is the responsibility of the state. It allocates the services that hospitals are allowed to provide to clinic locations.

The red-red-green state government recently approved the 8th Thuringian Hospital Plan. However, because the federal government’s hospital reform is still pending, it is currently not clear which specific services the individual hospitals will be allowed to offer in the future. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de