Enlarge image
Emergency room of a clinic in Brandenburg
Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa
According to estimates by the German Hospital Association (DKG), more hospitals in Germany will slip into insolvency in the coming year than ever before. "We are currently recording significantly more insolvencies than usual, and 2024 threatens to be a record year of insolvency," said Gerald Gass, head of the association, to the editorial network Germany (RND). In 2023, there were almost 40 insolvencies. "For 2024, we run the risk of doubling this figure due to the foreseeable strong development of personnel costs."
Gass referred to the current Hospital Barometer of the German Hospital Institute (DKI), the representative survey of general hospitals in Germany conducted annually. While in 2022, around half of the hospitals still reported a negative annual result at 54 percent, this share could rise to more than three-quarters (78 percent) in the current year, according to the barometer. The proportion of houses with a surplus will fall from 35 to just seven percent. According to the survey, 2024 percent of hospitals expect a further deterioration in 71. Only four percent expect an improvement.
"These are the worst values since the introduction of the hospital barometer in 2000," Gass told RND. Hardly any hospital can still cover its expenses from its current income. He again called for inflation compensation for hospitals. Hospitals would not be able to adjust their prices to inflation on their own, but would have the same increases in spending as other sectors of the economy. "This imbalance is increasingly leading to insolvencies and closures," said Gass. By the end of the year, hospitals were missing a total of ten billion euros.
According to the National Association of Statutory Health and Long-Term Care Insurance (GKV), insolvencies are also increasing in the care sector. "The insolvencies are a warning signal. Although we have not yet seen a decline in the number of care contracts in outpatient or inpatient care, we have two percent fewer places available in nursing homes, for example, within a year. At the same time, the need is increasing because society is getting older. Today, we have about five million people in need of care, which will rise to about six million people in the next few years," said GKV Vice President Gernot Kiefer to the Rheinische Post. The reason for this is the lack of personnel and the resulting increased entrepreneurial risk.
fdi/Reuters