NRW hospitals are looking forward to the Corona autumn with concern: Extreme price jumps are putting clinics in threatening difficulties
09.09.2022 15:58
With great concerns and under enormous economic pressure, the hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia are preparing for the expected corona waves in autumn and winter. The persistently high number of COVID-19 cases in the wards since last autumn has made the tension even worse because the usual summer relaxation in hospital operations has been missing. “The hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia are going into the Corona autumn completely exhausted in terms of staff and finances,” said the President of the North Rhine-Westphalia Hospital Association, Ingo Morell.
“The summer wave has cemented the exceptional operation in the clinics that has been enforced since the beginning of the pandemic. Sensitive staff shortages in the middle of the holiday season have led to stations having to be closed again and again. Such supply bottlenecks could become permanent if hospitals are stuck with costs that are now exploding in all areas and then have to cut staff.
“With more than 4,500 patients testing positive for Corona, the NRW hospitals provided inpatient care for 20 times the number of COVID-19 cases in July 2022 compared to the same month in the two previous years. The fact that the number of COVID-19 cases is now falling again should not obscure the fact that the infection rate has still only reached a plateau. Since the autumn wave of 2021, the clinics in North Rhine-Westphalia have only experienced short phases of only slight relaxation. As a result, fewer postponed planned operations could be rescheduled than would have been necessary. KGNW President Ingo Morell summarized: “For hospitals with a fixed cost structure, this development means that they will have to cope with a significant decline in the number of cases and thus in revenue in 2022. In addition, there is the significantly greater effort that is required for patients with a corona infection in order to protect other people in the hospital from it. Additional expense that has no longer been paid since the federal government canceled the surcharges on July 1, 2022.” At the same time, Morell referred to the compensation payments that have been abolished since Easter and which previously secured the hospitals’ liquidity as part of the rescue package. The Berlin traffic light coalition must therefore restart the canceled Corona aid immediately.
Inflation strikes: clinics are piling up toxic deficits
“Almost all NRW clinics started the second half of the year financially weak. And that is a toxic starting point for the national and international energy crisis that has plagued us since the Russian attack on Ukraine," emphasized the KGNW President. “No hospital can bear the price jumps for natural gas and electricity on its own. Unlike other commercial companies, we cannot pass these costs on to anyone. We are piling up threatening deficits because we have to spend money that we cannot earn back.” Six out of ten hospitals are already in the red, the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research has found, and it expects this situation for 80 percent by 2023.
In this situation, the enormous cost increases for the NRW clinics cannot be absorbed. This year alone, many hospitals have had to pay up to four times higher prices for natural gas and twice as high for electricity, despite existing contracts. In the negotiations for the coming year, tariffs are currently being called for up to eight to ten times higher, and for electricity the increase is sixfold. The prices for food, medical supplies and services such as laundries have also risen, often by double-digit percentages. Even if there is a wide range of impacts, all hospitals must expect drastic losses in 2022 and 2023.
In view of the threatening situation for the NRW hospitals, the KGNW believes that the federal government has an obligation to immediately introduce an inflation adjustment that will initially stabilize the clinics for the year 2022. The state government must continue to live up to its leadership role on the state side and increase the pressure even further. “The last thing we need now before the Corona autumn and winter is further department and hospital closures for economic reasons. If Professor Karl Lauterbach, as the responsible federal minister, does not act, there is a risk of a collapse in healthcare. Hospital bankruptcies, waiting lists and overcrowded emergency rooms will then become the norm in North Rhine-Westphalia,” warned KGNW President Ingo Morell. Because without immediate financial support from the federal government, hospitals would be forced to reduce their offerings. This then affects the staff and the care of the people in North Rhine-Westphalia. The federal government must therefore create financial security for 2023 so that hospitals can continue to guarantee health care for all employees currently employed. It is disappointing that the new relief package does not contain a single signal to public services. “Perhaps the greatest danger to public services in the Corona fall and winter is that hospitals will completely lose their already thin or even borrowed liquidity,” explained Morell.
“Red alert: hospitals in danger”
Between September 5th and 29th, 2022, the German Hospital Association and the 16 state hospital associations will go public together to draw attention to the precarious economic situation of many hospitals against the background of inflation and the pandemic. The hospitals are primarily demanding inflation compensation in order to remain economically viable in the short term.