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Hospitals: The power struggle is raging in the Oberland

2021-07-09T21:30:16.901Z


The hospital landscape in Germany is changing. Upper Bavaria is not spared from this either. There is fierce competition - and the tone is getting rougher.


The hospital landscape in Germany is changing.

Upper Bavaria is not spared from this either.

There is fierce competition - and the tone is getting rougher.

County

- It's long been no secret that the federal government has a problem with the small hospitals in the countryside.

Precisely those clinics that were of inestimable value during the corona pandemic, and yet have more and more problems to survive.

The youngest problem child in this series is the Wolfratshausen district clinic. It is sponsored by the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. And he set up a steering committee that should formulate goals for the future of the district clinic. The result, formulated by the majority: "The district will look for a carrier / operator of hospitals who is willing and able to take on operational and strategic responsibility in the management and operation of the Wolfratshausen district clinic (including, if necessary, a majority stake)." the operator search has been put on hold, but the subject is far from off the table. And the hospital operators in the area are pondering whether they want to get involved in Wolfratshausen. Also at the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital?

Wolfratshausen district clinic: "We would check it out"

Its managing director Thomas Lippmann speaks surprisingly openly about the topic: “Nobody has asked us yet.

But if a corresponding request comes from Bad Tölz, we will check it carefully. ”A“ no ”sounds different.

"The fact is that what is happening in Wolfratshausen is an example of federal policy that is doing everything it can to put small hospitals under financial pressure," said Lippmann.

The situation is very similar to the one he found seven years ago when he became managing director in Weilheim and Schongau. "The hospital in Wolfratshausen has been economized in the past few years," said Lippmann. Neither the medical nor the nursing staff could do anything about this. "Due to the inadequate financial resources, we have a clinic in Wolfratshausen without contours that does not offer any medical highlights or unique selling points." The Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district would certainly have had to invest heavily to make the district clinic fit for the future. That would be a conceivable variant that Lippmann would submit to the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district: if desired, the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital in Wolfratshausen would join in "to strengthen communality in the region".In other words, to prevent private agencies like Asklepios, who already runs the hospital in Bad Tölz, from spreading further.

District contributes up to 15 million euros per year for hospitals

This requires a clear commitment from the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district, according to Lippmann: "The strong medical development in the Weilheim-Schongau district has only been made possible by the district alone." That is why Wolfratshausen also applies: It is a matter of implementing the best possible medical offer.

And if at the end of the year there is no black zero or a profit, the district steps in and takes over the minus.

In the Weilheim-Schongau district, the district contributes between 7.5 and 10 million euros every year - in addition to a flat-rate investment cost of around five million euros per year, which comes on top.

Lippmann: "Selling the Penzberg Hospital was the biggest mistake"

Isn't Lippmann afraid of harsh criticism from the Penzberg area? After all, the district sold the Penzberg Hospital to the Starnberg Clinic around ten years ago and now you want to get involved in Wolfratshausen instead? “Selling Penzberg was the biggest mistake you could make,” Lippmann says clearly. That was done before he took up the job, because "I would have urgently advised against it". The consequences can already be seen: The hospital in Penzberg now has investment needs after the sale to Starnberg, but the district of Weilheim-Schongau has stipulated in the purchase contract that there will be no subsidies for investments in the Penzberg location - they would have to be from the new provider come to the Starnberg Clinic.Sooner or later this could become a problem for Penzberg, said Lippmann. Because the competitive environment with the hospitals in Weilheim, Starnberg, Bad Tölz and Murnau is tough.

Starnberg Managing Director: "Capacity utilization in Penzberg better than in Weilheim and Schongau"

That, in turn, sees the managing director of the Starnberg Clinic, Dr.

Thomas Weiler, decidedly different from his colleague from Weilheim.

"The hospital in Penzberg is going very well," he said in an interview with the local newspaper.

4000 patients were cared for in the 100-bed house last year.

“That is a very good utilization rate, which, by the way, is higher than that in Weilheim and Schongau,” said Weiler.

It becomes even clearer when he is asked about the investment needs in Penzberg: "When we took over Penzberg from the Weilheim-Schongau district about ten years ago, the operating theaters were in a catastrophic condition," he reports.

As a result, 12 to 15 million euros were invested in the Penzberg location.

"Especially where it was necessary, but where the patient does not notice it," says Weiler.

The district of Starnberg has not transferred a cent to the clinic since 2006

A total of 10.5 million euros went into the renovation of the operating theaters, and a new combined heat and power unit and an emergency generator ensure that the lights in the hospital do not go out even in the event of a power failure.

“So we made the investments in Penzberg that the Weilheim-Schongau district did not,” Weiler continued.

"We will certainly have to whitewash again at the Penzberg site in the foreseeable future and replace one or the other equipment," he continued.

But he does not expect that the Starnberg district council could cause problems with the investment in Penzberg, which is in the neighboring district.

There is a very simple reason for this: “The Starnberg district has not had to put a cent into the Starnberg Clinic since 2006.” Not only does the company break even, it also generates the necessary funds for investments - in contrast to the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital .

"Penzberg is an extremely attractive city"

There are no considerations to give up the Penzberg location. "Penzberg is an extremely attractive city, the hospital is self-sustaining." In addition, the decision in favor of Penzberg was a strategic one. “We wanted to prevent the advance of private carriers. And that is still our goal, ”said the Starnberg managing director.

This means that the decision to buy Penzberg was also motivated by the fact that they wanted to prevent the private carrier Asklepios, which already runs the hospital in Bad Tölz, from spreading further. As a result, developments in the Wolfratshausen district clinic are also being monitored very closely, says Weiler. "If this were to go to Asklepios in the end, it would be gauntlets in our direction that we would not leave unanswered." The Starnberg Clinic operates the maternity ward in Wolfratshausen on behalf of the district.

So the hospital in Penzberg is of strategic importance for the Starnberg Clinic, said Weiler.

"We are asserting ourselves well in the competition in the region, the competition from Weilheim is not too bad," he said.

In addition, the Penzbergers have a large catchment area - a lot of patients from Geretsried would come to Penzberg instead of being treated in Wolfratshausen, which is only a few kilometers away.

If a large hospital is planned, repayments in the millions would be threatened

Weiler is also relaxed about the mental games of Weilheim's district administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß, who dreams of building a large joint hospital, for which the current locations in Weilheim and Schongau would have to be given up (we reported).

"I don't think that it will be as easy as you would imagine in the Weilheim-Schongau district," said Weiler.

In the past few years, around 50 million euros have been invested in the general renovation of the Weilheim hospital and considerable sums in the renovation of Schongau.

Generous funding flowed from the Free State.

"There is a 30-year earmarking period for these funds," says Weiler.

If the Weilheim-Schongau district now wants to inaugurate its new central hospital in ten to 15 years, “then a considerable part of the funding has to be repaid.

And it is doubtful whether the federal government and the Free State are prepared to pump money into a new building again in the face of this. "

Lippmann: "It's all a matter of negotiation"

His colleague from the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital, Thomas Lippmann, sees no problem in this. "We have to negotiate with the Free State," he said. He sees the arguments on his side: “Time and again, major politicians demand that larger hospitals be built that work more cost-effectively. If we want to create just such a structure, then it's hard to ignore it. "

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-07-09

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