Hospital.Help

Mainz – From the perspective of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the planned hospital reform will significantly change the patient structure of university hospitals and at the same time improve their financial situation.

These hospitals, which are currently often struggling with losses, would be burdened with a greater burden of very serious cases, Lauterbach said today in Mainz. At the same time, these hospitals would be able to get rid of more mild cases. Patients would be referred to other hospitals for further care after an operation.

“These are modern structures,” the minister stressed. “We will then distribute patients more sensibly across the different sectors. The university hospitals are essentially the mother of distribution in this reform,” said Lauterbach about the goals of the reform. “We want to achieve this specialization and at the same time maintain rural care.”

Lauterbach stressed that Mainz University Medical Center is particularly well suited to the planned hospital reform – because of its supra-regional importance in oncology care with strong links to immunology. “Mainz is already a major player, not just in Germany, but internationally.”

The fact that such hospitals, which are a national resource, are systematically making losses shows that the current financing system does not reward quality. The flat-rate fee system does not reflect the quality of treatment. “The current system is therefore a systematic system of discrimination for specialist medicine and for university hospitals.”

Lauterbach praised the fact that the state of Rhineland-Palatinate had announced a partial debt relief of the Mainz University Medical Center for 400 million euros. “We need this nationwide.” The university hospitals do not have to represent such old debts themselves, he said, because the current system does not work.

The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer (SPD), called the planned partial debt relief a “clear statement of support” for the university hospital. Overall, the hospital landscape is in flux. It is an illusion to believe that nothing will change if the planned reform does not come about – “a dangerous illusion,” said Schweitzer.

The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Science and Health, Clemens Hoch (SPD), is also pushing for changes in health care. “We need a fundamental hospital reform,” he said. All of his colleagues in the state know that this reform is needed. Currently, neighboring hospitals are offering competitive services that tend to earn more money.

Many clinics are in financial distress and the need to rethink structures is more urgent than ever. “The desired innovative structural change will only work if all service providers – whether outpatient or inpatient – concentrate on their strengths and jointly form viable care networks,” emphasized Hoch.

There are no reform plans from the federal government against the states, assured the Rhineland-Palatinate Health Minister. However, it is important for the state government to continue to be responsible for planning the hospitals.

The Federal Minister of Health warned against delaying the reform. Germany has the highest hospital costs in Europe, with average, and in some areas even below-average, treatment results. One in three beds in the hospitals remains empty. “We therefore need a major reform.” He is addressing the individual needs of the states in bilateral talks. He is accepting suggestions from the states.

“Rhineland-Palatinate is showing how modern hospital care works,” said Lauterbach. With great support from the state government, the Mainz University Hospital is taking responsibility for top-class medicine in the region. It supports surrounding hospitals with its specialist knowledge, coordinates care in crisis situations such as the corona pandemic and expands the clinical training of medical students in cooperation with other clinics. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de