Details are still pending.

However, the state of Hesse will support the majority-privatized university hospital in Gießen and Marburg with around 490 million euros over the next ten years.

The money is to flow into medical equipment and construction projects.

Both sides have agreed to a letter of intent to extend the 2017 future agreement.

However, a point of contention remains.

This emerges from a message to the staff of the UKGM clinic, which is available to the FAZ.

In it, the management of the clinic and the majority owner Rhön-Klinikum AG also deal with critics and reject allegations.

Thorsten Winter

Business editor and internet coordinator in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Rhön boss Christian Hoeftberger and the chairman of the UKGM management, Gunther Weiß, refer to criticism of the declaration of intent.

They describe the attacks as "often grossly incorrect in terms of content".

This applies, for example, when it is said that the UKGM is “broke”.

"Such polemical statements fail to recognize that two solidly operating university hospitals are demanding no more and no less from the state than the perception of its role in dual hospital financing," it says.

No company in distress has to be rescued by the state government with tax money.

Sold to Rhön-Klinikum in 2006

The central Hessian clinic is the third largest of its kind in Germany and the only privatized university clinic.

At the beginning of 2006, the government under Roland Koch (CDU) parted with 95 percent of the shares and sold them to Rhön-Klinikum AG.

The background to this was an investment backlog in the three-digit million range that had arisen over the years due to underfunding on the part of the state.

But now there is a lack of money of a similar amount again.

Since the takeover, the majority shareholder has provided for a new central clinic and a new children's clinic at the Gießen site, which was previously heavily fragmented, as well as for new buildings in Marburg, including the particle therapy center for the treatment of certain types of cancer.

However, the large clinic has to shoulder considerable burdens.

Because the majority owner gave him loans for the investments.

The UKGM starts the financial year with a loss of almost 40 million euros every year.

UKGM is missing a three-digit million amount

In January, the Gießen clinic director Werner Seeger spoke in the FAZ with a call for help.

His key message: UKGM is suffering from an investment backlog.

The house is missing a three-digit million amount.

There is even a lack of money for necessary equipment.

In this respect, he was relieved in view of the declaration of intent, according to which the state wants to support the privatized university hospital in Gießen and Marburg with up to 45 million euros per year.

Seeger, like Rhön boss Christian Höftberger, represents the legal opinion that the UKGM – like all other university clinics and planned hospitals in Germany – is entitled to appropriate investment funding from the state.

"Discussions with the representatives of the state government showed that there are conflicting legal opinions.

We are still convinced that UKGM is also entitled to appropriate investment funding - as provided for in the principle of dual financing anchored in German hospital financing law," the internal statement says.

And: "A judicial clarification of this important issue would take many years and would be seen by the state as an unfriendly act." for judicial clarification.