The employees of the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital have had a difficult year.
Managing director Thomas Lippmann left no doubt about this in his report in the district council.
And also not because the GmbH will remain permanently dependent on financial injections from the district.
District
- "The pandemic has not left us without a trace," said Lippmann at the beginning of his remarks.
First, however, he concentrated on making it clear to the district councils what had already been achieved.
“Seven years ago,” said the managing director, “it was unthinkable that a doctor would commute from Weilheim to Schongau and vice versa”.
That has changed significantly: “Our goal is a virtual hospital with 400 beds.” In other words, the patient doesn't care whether he is treated as an inpatient in Weilheim or Schongau, the experts come to the respective location if necessary.
However, the corona pandemic hindered this project, admitted Lippmann.
"We turned Schongau into a specialty clinic for Covid so that we could maintain standard care in Weilheim." In his lecture, he emphasized once again how important this is: "The other diseases do not just vanish into thin air because Corona prevails. "It was found that in the past year," many went to the hospital much too late out of sheer fear, "said Lippmann.
The consequence is "very serious disease courses".
This also had an impact on the occupancy rate of the two hospitals.
Last year, around 200 Covid patients were treated as inpatients.
However, the number of cases fell to 13,850 - around 2700 fewer than in 2019. The occupancy rate of the two hospitals, which has been increasing steadily since 2014, has "crashed" from more than 80 percent to the 2014 level - 66.7 percent.
Lippmann: No cynicism when dealing with employees
As a result, the district's need for subsidies has also increased significantly.
When asked by the district council, Lippmann announced that only half of the three million euros Corona special grant that the district council had approved in the supplementary budget in the autumn would probably only be needed.
In this context, he once again referred to the advantages of municipal sponsorship and gave various examples.
The Asklepios Clinic in Bad Tölz recently fired numerous nursing assistants because they would no longer receive reimbursement of the costs from the health insurers.
In all seriousness, a hospital in Meiningen distributed 5 euro vouchers as a bonus to its nursing staff so that “they can make a heartfelt wish come true,” says Lippmann.
Fortunately, such cynicism is alien to the employees of the Krankenhaus GmbH.
Just like permanent overload: "Those who have free time with us have free time and do not have to stare at their cell phone all the time and fear that the call will come because the staff cover is too thin," says the managing director.
It pays off: “The nurses come to us from all the surrounding hospitals and want to work here.
Not just because we pay the tariff, but because the overall package fits. "
Lippmann also praises the cooperation with the “Rechts der Isar” clinic in Munich.
“The cooperation is of great benefit to both sides.
And is always being expanded, ”he said.
Specialists from Munich have recently been arriving when complicated interventions are necessary after a stroke.
Robot technology as a success story
Lippmann also sees the hospital GmbH as far ahead when it comes to robot technology.
The Mako robot, which was purchased in 2019, has been used 350 times so far.
The Da Vinci robot, which was purchased last year, has already completed 100 operations and will also be used for gynecological interventions in the future.
By investing more than 50 million euros in the renovation and modernization of the two hospitals in recent years, the company is now "competitive and well positioned".
The next thing to do is to “push the digitization in hospitals massively”, said Lippmann, but also admitted that “this will only be possible with appropriate financing of the own contributions”.
When asked by the district councils, he admitted: “If we want to maintain today's supply, costs will hardly fall in the long run.” The only real savings potential is the waiver of the public service tariff, but “then we are not far away from the five euro thank you bonus from the Meiningen hospital ”.
Sharp criticism of permanent visitor bans in the hospitals
District Councilor Franz Reßle (ÖDP / Schongau) criticized in the subsequent debate, above all, the visit to the two hospitals.
“There was a woman who could not be visited by her relatives for 16 days, although all of them had negative corona tests.
That's inhuman! ”He said.
District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß tried to take the issue out of the debate as an “isolated case”, but managing director Lippmann still replied: “There is a visit to both houses.
There are only exceptions for palliative care patients - so that the relatives can say goodbye.
The decision to lift the visit is up to the medical management, not the management. ”But he warned:“ We are in the middle of the third wave and we are dealing with an aggressive, highly contagious virus mutation. ”
The displeasure is growing: hospital grant in the budget debate
Around ten million euros per year are planned in the district budget to compensate for the deficit of the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital.
Another five million euros have been calculated for the necessary investments.
Sums that put a heavy strain on the county budget, which led to critical words in the budget debate.
"Health care close to home is important to us," said Katharina von Platen (Greens / Penzberg) in the debate.
Big politics make “small hospitals deliberately uneconomical”.
However, the districts of Landsberg am Lech and Starnberg show "that municipal hospitals can also be run economically".
Susann Enders (Free Voters / Weilheim) said the investments in the Krankenhaus GmbH were necessary in order to be competitive ”.
But now it is important to “manage what is available”.
The purchase of the first surgical robot was "good and right".
But "then, to our misunderstanding, a second one was bought and we Free Voters want to make it clear: We can no longer afford a third surgical robot, no matter how great it is."
Armin Jabs (BfP / Penzberg) asked, “How long can we still afford these grants - five years?
Ten years? ”In the financial planning for the coming years,“ no will to make savings is discernible ”with hospital grants.
Rüdiger Imgart (AfD / Weilheim) said on the subject of the hospital: “The corona pandemic is only responsible for part of the deficit.
If we can no longer afford things, they should be put to the test. "
The former District Administrator Friedrich Zeller (SPD / Schongau) became even clearer: “I lack the strategy for hospital policy in the district.
Millions flow over the years without a dedicated and comprehensible concept ”.
The economic feasibility study required by the district council for the million-dollar purchase of the surgical robot has not yet taken place: "We don't need bloody operating room pictures or advertising films, but concepts," said Zeller.
That the opposition in the district council argues against the high annual subsidies for the hospital GmbH is not particularly surprising.
But the fact that there was no clear commitment from the CSU aside from the approval of the budget and financial planning was certainly heard.
