THE “revolution in the hospital system” signed off by German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on Wednesday does nothing to address healthcare’s financial crisis and will allow mass hospital closures, health campaigners and doctors say.
The reform changes the way hospitals are funded, moving away from a flat-rate per treatment model, which Mr Lauterbach advised on implementing as an adviser to the then Social Democrat-Green coalition, to one based on service availability, supposedly to reduce unnecessary treatments, and establishes performance groups to assess hospitals’ competence to carry out procedures.
Alliance Clinic Rescue spokeswoman Laura Valentukeviciute told socialist newspaper Junge Welt the reform “aims to close numerous hospitals” because the performance groups will exclude clinics from covering certain treatments.
Marburger Bund doctors’ union chairwoman Susanne Johna said hospitals needed economic help, and the reform provided no additional funds.
Fifty German hospitals filed for bankruptcy last year, with soaring energy bills and general inflation over recent years not having prompted increased budgets.
