“The numbers are not deep red because the hospitals are working badly, but because the federal government is working badly,” said the general manager of the Sankt Vincent clinics in Salzkotten and Paderborn, Josef Düllings, in Paderborn on Wednesday (April 5). The ambulance strike is an “emergency call to the federal government, specifically to the Federal Chancellery”.
In addition to the Vincenz Clinics, the Brothers Hospital, the Sankt Johannisstift and the Medical Center for Health (MZG) in Bad Lippspringe are also involved. On the days when the outpatient clinics are closed, patients should contact the resident doctors or hospitals outside the Paderborn district – for example the university clinics in Münster, Bielefeld and Göttingen. Last year alone, 60,000 people visited the outpatient clinic at the Vincenz Clinics, i.e. around 170 a day.
Inpatients have priority
The ambulance area is on strike for good reason. The clinic management still consider him to be the most dispensable. Düllings made it clear: “Intensive patients and inpatients are the A priority for the hospitals, the outpatient department is the B priority.” However, the hospitals in the Paderborn district did not want to discontinue the entire range of outpatient services “immediately”. Further strike days are planned after April 20, but emergency care will nevertheless be guaranteed.
The representatives of the clinics accused the federal government of a “legally prescribed undersupply”. They are particularly annoyed by the lack of inflation compensation. The prices for hospital services are finally determined each year by a change value fixed by the Federal Ministry of Health, but this is too low. For 2022 it was 2.3 percent, although inflation had climbed to eight percent. For the current year, the change value has been set at 4.3 percent, with inflation at seven to eight percent. “Inflation was the tipping point for the clinics, the killer factor,” Düllings emphasized the enormous burdens associated with it.
“Disinformation of the population and the media”
He accused the federal government of “disinformation of the population and the media”. The voter should believe that politicians are doing everything to support the hospitals, which is in fact not true. The Commercial Director of the St. Josef Paderborn Brothers Hospital, Siegfried Rörig, found clear words: “Our doctors and nurses ensure quality in healthcare. Politics doesn’t do that. Their specifications do not ensure quality in the healthcare system, they are rather the demolition excavators. “
According to Rörig, the financial undersupply has concrete consequences: “In the long run, we can only offer services that are paid for. If you don’t give the fire department a new fire engine, they won’t be able to put out a fire.”
The hospital bosses criticized that the situation of the statutory health insurance companies (GKV) was presented worse than it really was. The GKV achieved a surplus of 500 million euros in 2022, had reserves of ten billion euros and additional liquidity reserves of twelve billion in the health fund. In the past year, the costs for the treatment of an insured person in the hospital have increased by two percent, but for the administration of the funds by 6.7 percent. The claim that there is no money for the hospitals is also disinformation from the population.
The long wait for money
“Since 2019 we have been pushing claims of five million euros in front of us,” complained the managing director of the MZG in Bad Lippspringe (Karl-Hansen-Klinik), Achim Schäfer, the annoying wait for money to finally flow. He also referred to regulations such as the federal “Nursing Personnel Lower Limit Ordinance”, which restricts the scope for action: “We are only allowed to admit patients of the size in which we have nursing staff. As a result, some areas are empty. “
In the past, one employee was enough for four patients in the intensive care unit, today the ratio is 1:2. In addition to the problem of liquidity, there is also the issue of credibility. There is a risk that “those who finance us will no longer believe that we have a future”. Schäfer praised the good coordination between the clinics in the Paderborn district. With the ambulance strike, it is important to set an example at an early stage.
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