What's next with the Wolfratshausen District Clinic?
District Administrator Niedermaier announces a "dialogue format to secure the future".
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen
- Actually, the district council should have recently passed a resolution on future health care in the district.
However, due to the controversial debate that sparked on the subject of the district clinic, the district councils followed the suggestion of District Administrator Josef Niedermaier (FW).
He advocated an upstream “discussion moratorium” - and is now specifying the further procedure: In a press release, Niedermaier announced a “dialogue format to secure the future of the district clinic”.
We want and have to act, precisely because we want to secure the district clinic in the long term. "
Josef Niedermaier, District Administrator
The plan was to propose to the district council "to initiate a formalized competitive procedure in order to specifically sound out the best opportunities for cooperation in order to secure the district clinic in the long term," explains Niedermaier. The main objective was to secure the district clinic “with high quality acute inpatient services, including internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and 24/7 emergency rooms”. In addition, “better coordination of inpatient care in the region with cooperation partners in order to preserve jobs and public benefit”. The district administrator and chairman of the supervisory board of the Kreisklinik gGmbH assured the sale of the hospital on Wolfratshauser Moosbauerweg, "it was never about giving up local influence or even closing the district clinic". Niedermaier emphasizes:“We want and have to act, precisely because we want to secure the district clinic in the long term.” The facility needs “concrete options for the future”. The district administrator points out that "all conceivable partners will only make an effort and make us a good offer of cooperation if they know that they are not our only option."
Looking back on the events since the Vicondo analysis became known at the beginning of May, Niedermaier states: "We would not have done the district clinic a favor at the moment if we had pushed the proposed resolution through parliamentary groups despite the troubled moods with a fight vote." a “concept competition” can only be found “if the path is understood and generally supported by a broad majority”.
District administrator demands long-term investment plan from hospital management
As soon as the Corona regulations make it possible, the district will prepare and carry out a dialogue format to secure the future of the district clinic. Only then would the 60-member district council decide "how the future of the district clinic is specifically approached". In addition, he will propose to the clinic's supervisory board to ask the management of the non-profit GmbH, "at the latest with the annual business plan in autumn, an updated strategy as a single clinic - if necessary with preliminary considerations on selective cooperation -, a detailed, five-year planning calculation and a long-term, to submit comprehensive investment planning ". The strategy and figures should be a "sound basis" for the economic planning of the institution responsible for the facility, the district.
Wolfratshausen district clinic has been making losses for years
In his press release, Niedermaier again points out that “the political and structural framework conditions have been more difficult for years, especially for smaller hospitals”. Legal requirements and qualitative requirements "are increasing continuously and can be refinanced from the system less and less". Like many other “single hospitals” in Germany, the district clinic is “structurally deficient”. According to the district administrator, the loss since 2013 has been around ten million euros. Niedermaier: "In addition, since 2018 the district has also borne the costs for the operation of obstetrics in Wolfratshausen by the Starnberg Clinic in the amount of 1.5 million euros a year." In this context, one should not forget:"Only about a quarter of the district's population actually uses the medical services of the district clinic at the moment." (Cce)
