Jürgen Graf, medical director of the Frankfurt University Hospital, currently rates silence as a good sign.

The first outraged cries have died down, critics have placed their comments concerning the planned hospital reform.

“After the initial excitement, everyone is now dealing with the content,” suspects Graf.

And they have it all.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), in cooperation with a commission consisting of physicians and scientists, has presented a plan for fundamentally reforming the German hospital landscape.

The core of the consideration: A new financing system and the associated move away from the flat rate per case.

To put it simply, there should no longer be an incentive to treat as many patients as

but to give them exactly the care they need.

The inpatient and outpatient sectors should move closer together.

High coordination effort

Marie Lisa Kehler

Deputy head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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For this purpose, clinics are to be divided into different categories and service groups, namely basic care, regular and special care providers and maximum care providers.

Maximum care providers such as university hospitals should work more closely with smaller primary care facilities, in which only a few interventions will be carried out in the future, but which should place a stronger focus on the follow-up care of patients.

According to Graf, it is not yet clear whether the changes will also result in the closure of individual houses.

But a reduction in beds is certain.

And that tends to affect smaller than larger houses.

It is foreseeable that there will be a high level of coordination effort between the houses, says Graf.

But one that offers opportunities.

This is the only way to conserve resources, especially staff, and distribute them better.

Graf names another problem: “We have a higher utilization of the healthcare system compared to other EU countries.

We are not sicker than our neighbors. ”But supply creates demand – currently to an extent that can hardly be managed by staff and cannot always be medically justified.

Discussion on reform in January

In view of the demographic development, it is also high time to reposition yourself.

Because the population is aging.

"The proportion of people over the age of eighty is increasing dramatically." And with it the frequency of hospitalization.

However, the number of people working in the healthcare sector can hardly be increased substantially, which is why restructuring is unavoidable.

"We will have enough to do in the health care system to maintain the current workforce until 2030," says Graf.

The proposed plan provides approaches to a variety of existing problems, which now need to be discussed and poured into a legal framework, says Graf.

He had already formulated similar thoughts on a possible hospital reform in the summer.

In the opinion of the clinic director, communicating the necessary changes to the population and supporting them in the transformation process is probably one of the greatest challenges.

It is not yet certain whether the process will even be set in motion.

In January, Lauterbach wants to discuss the reform proposals with the members of the traffic light groups.

There is currently criticism from the countries that feel their competencies have been ignored.

Graf hopes that the proposals will start a discussion.

There is no denying that something needs to change.

“Just making more and more is not the answer for the future.

We need to develop a healthcare system for the next decade.”