What role does the Ochsenfurt Main Clinic still play in a hospital landscape after the structural reform planned by Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD)? In many things, is it already further than the controversial draft by Lauterbach’s expert commission? Or is it threatened with economic collapse, as the CSU district parliamentary group writes in a draft resolution that failed with a bang in the most recent district council meeting?
The Ochsenfurt SPD member of parliament Volkmar Halbleib wants to contrast the crisis scenario of the CSU with a cross-party declaration that makes it clear what importance the district hospital has for medical care in rural areas and how clinics of a comparable size can learn from the Main Clinic. So Halbleib in conversation with this editorial team.
The FPD also found clear words for the CSU resolution. “Rejecting a reform per se is completely the wrong approach,” doctor and district councilor Florian Kuhl is quoted as saying in a press release. The resolution contains many untenable claims and unfoundedly stirs up fears about the reform plans, which are far from complete.
Among other things, the reform proposal is about dividing clinics into fixed care levels. If the Main Clinic were to be classified as Level I, the CSU believes that this could mean that various treatments and operations can no longer be carried out and the patients have to be referred to a specialist or university clinic.
Put the special services of the Main Clinic in the foreground
“We have to lead the debate about the hospital reform in such a way that the development and the special services of the Main-Klinik become clear,” says Halbleib. As an example, he cites the closer integration of outpatient and inpatient care demanded by Lauterbach, which has been practice at the Main Clinic for more than a decade. This is made clear by the founding of a medical care center twelve years ago and by the close cooperation with resident specialists, for example in urology, radiology and neurosurgery.
According to Halbleib, the strong cooperation with the university clinic and the Würzburg Mitte clinic as well as the Kitzinger Land clinic is also exemplary. The cooperation includes, among other things, the treatment of stroke and heart disease. In this way, the Main-Klinik offers high treatment standards and at the same time contributes to relieving the burden on the university clinic. With the founding of its own nursing school, the Main-Klinik has also shown great commitment to the training of nursing staff.
“The Main Clinic is already doing what others should be doing,” Halbleib continues. This is also underlined by the health policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, the Würzburg medical professor Andrew Ullmann. “As an attractive employer with good connections and embedding in the various care cooperations, the Main-Klinik already fulfills what is still to be developed elsewhere in the future,” says Ullmann. He clearly sees the future prospects of the Main Clinic in the area of a Level II hospital.
Pay more attention to the division of labor between regional clinics
Halbleib is therefore calling on the government commission to revise its recommendation by not only taking individual clinics into account, but also their regional network and the advantages of the division of labor between hospitals with different levels of care. The Free State is also required to describe the specific care mandate for clinics such as the Main Clinic and to successfully introduce it into the coordination between the federal and state governments. FDP parliamentary group spokesman Wolfgang Kuhl even accuses the Bavarian state government of having neglected appropriate hospital planning for decades.
Irrespective of this, the federal government and the health insurance companies are required to compensate for the recent increase in personnel and energy costs with higher reimbursement rates and separate payments, according to Volkmar Halbleib. Last year, higher operating costs caused the deficit to rise to over two million euros. Around 750,000 euros of this shortfall is due to the fact that ancillary costs and maintenance costs are not sufficiently refinanced by the Free State.
