Too many hospitals

09.04.2015 10:40

By giving up 210 hospitals in Germany, annual savings of at least 570 million euros could be achieved without the population having to accept any noticeable disadvantages in terms of care or additional travel distances. This is the result of a model calculation that Boris Augurzky, head of the health competence area at the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research (RWI), presented today at the Western Health Congress in Cologne.

The savings volume is calculated from a reduced investment requirement and avoided deficits, less additional costs for security surcharges and the expansion of air rescue. The RWI estimates that around 240 hospitals are now at increased risk of insolvency. By 2020, almost one in eight of the approximately 2,000 German hospitals will have to close if their providers allow it, said Augurzky. With 150 houses at risk, public hospitals are threatened more often than others, with one in four threatened with extinction. Non-profit organizations, such as church hospitals, have around 80 candidates for bankruptcy and private clinics only around 10. However, some of these would have to be preserved to ensure security of supply.

The RWI scientists assume that hospitals providing basic and standard care should be reachable from any location in Germany in a maximum of 30 minutes by car, and hospitals for specialized and maximum care within a maximum of 60 minutes by car. The time until the emergency services arrived was set at a maximum of 12 minutes, even in sparsely populated and rural areas. The scientists recommend expanding air rescue so that emergency patients can be taken to clinics by helicopter as quickly as possible.