DKG: Investment financing by the states remains a tragedy

18.01.2022 11:50

Even in the first year of the pandemic, 2020, the federal states did not fulfill their obligation to adequately finance hospitals' investments. This is the result of the latest “Inventory of Hospital Planning and Investment Financing in the Federal States 2021” compiled by the German Hospital Association (DKG). This means that the problem of chronic underfinancing of hospitals in the investment area, which has been going on for three decades, continues.

Hospitals use the state funds to finance their necessary investments, for example in buildings, medical technology and digitalization. There is still a billion-dollar gap between the necessary needs in this area and the financing actually provided by the states.

The investment needs of the clinics in 2020 were determined to be more than six billion euros. This compares to only around three billion euros that the federal states have contributed to hospital investments. Adjusted for inflation, the funding amount has almost halved since 1991.

“When clinics have to close for economic reasons, the lack of investment costs always plays a significant role. This cold structural change due to underfunding was already a tragedy for inpatient care before the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The past two years have once again underlined that things cannot continue like this. As long as the federal and state governments do not fulfill their legal obligations to finance hospitals, all political assurances to improve the situation in hospitals will remain mere Sunday speeches,” says the CEO of the DKG, Dr. Gerald Gass.

A ray of hope is that the Hospital Future Fund is supporting digitalization in hospitals with four billion euros. “The data and reporting problems with important indicators of the corona pandemic are largely due to the inadequate digitalization of the German healthcare system. However, it must be clear to everyone here that the Hospital Future Fund provides an impetus, but that the financing of digitalization must be made permanent. In general, investment cost financing must be secured to a sufficient extent and reliably over the long term. The federal government is called upon here, because the states can hardly bear the burden on their own,” explains DKG board chairman Gaß.