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Strike at the Bonn University Hospital 2022: Postponement of procedures possible
Photo: IMAGO/Dominik Bund
Doctors nationwide are called on a warning strike at state-owned university hospitals on Tuesday. The Marburger Bund doctors' union assumes a high level of participation and therefore considers restrictions at the university hospitals to be likely.
According to the doctors' union, medical care for all emergencies and urgent cases is guaranteed. However, postponements could occur for planned examinations and non-acute interventions.
The background to the work stoppages at a total of 23 university hospitals is collective bargaining that has so far yielded no results. In the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, the six university hospitals in Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen and Münster are affected.
Many doctors want to go to the central nationwide demonstration in Hanover; according to the union's estimate, around 1,500 of the 5,000 doctors from the six NRW university hospitals are traveling. Rallies are also planned in Aachen, Cologne and Düsseldorf with a total of hundreds of participants.
The money is better at urban clinics
In collective bargaining, the Marburger Bund is demanding 12.5 percent more salary, based on one year, as well as higher supplements for regular work at night, on weekends and on public holidays. He justified the requested linear increase with inflation and the goal of closing the salary gap with other hospital providers. The last third round of negotiations took place on January 16th and 17th in Berlin.
In Lower Saxony, the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and the Göttingen University Medical Center are affected by the strike, and strikes are also planned in Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and other federal states. In university hospitals in some other federal states, there are other collective agreements for doctors - for example in Berlin, Hamburg and Hesse. Separately negotiated collective agreements also apply to the university hospitals in Dresden and Mainz.
The Düsseldorf University Hospital pointed out that there could be individual restrictions in patient care due to the warning strike. “Patients for whom planned treatment needs to be postponed that day will be informed by the treatment teams,” it said.
The working conditions at the university hospitals harmed patient care, complained Hans Martin Wollenberg, first chairman of the Marburg Federation of Lower Saxony. According to the union, the basic salary for doctors at university hospitals is around 200 to 600 euros lower than in municipal hospitals with longer working hours.
The collective bargaining community of the states regretted the failure of the latest round of negotiations with the Marburg Federation and announced a willingness to compromise. "It remains the case that our appreciation for the work of the doctors at the university hospitals should also be expressed in money," said Schleswig-Holstein's Green Finance Minister Monika Heinold. She is the negotiator for the collective bargaining community.
apr/dpa