Berlin – They want to keep fighting because they hope that the Wenckebach Hospital in Tempelhof will be preserved. Even if parts of the basic provider with its more than 400 beds have already moved to the Auguste Viktoria Clinic in neighboring Steglitz. A large complex with around 1000 beds is to be built there, step by step by 2028. “The financing of the new buildings is largely not secured,” says Charlotte Rutz-Sperling. She is an occupational therapist and shop steward for the Verdi union in Wenckebach Hospital, she speaks for an initiative that is committed to maintaining inpatient care in Tempelhof. They have planned the next campaign for January 21st and have also invited Health Senator Ulrike Gote (Greens).
The system is getting on in years. “The renovation is too expensive, it is said,” reports Rutz-Sperling, thereby reproducing the arguments of the Vivantes group. “No wonder, because the state of Berlin has saved the hospital and refused to comply with the legal obligation to assume 100 percent of the investment costs.” Between 90 and 100 beds are currently blocked. “Just because of a lack of staff?” Asks Rutz-Sperling, a rhetorical question. She and others are worried that the “Health City Berlin 2030” project initiated by the Senate will lead to a reduction in beds. In fact, the coalition agreement of the new state government provides for integrated supply centers to be built in individual districts. Wenckebach will also take on outpatient tasks in the future.
What is currently happening in inpatient care in this country seems strange. Doctors are sounding the alarm because they see the next wave of infections with Sars-Cov-2 rolling in, because the virus variant Omikron could push the health system to its limits and beyond. At the same time, clinics in Germany are being closed. This year nine houses went offline, 22 partial closings were recorded by the alliance of hospital rescue, which also includes Rutz-Sperling’s initiative. The alliance calculates that 814 beds have been lost, and 1226 employees are affected.
Long wait in the emergency room
The end has been decided for a further 31 hospitals, and 19 more could be threatened. The federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia are the hotspots for dismantling. The clinic rescue alliance relies on data from the Federal Statistical Office. According to this, around 49,000 beds were cut nationwide between 1991 and 2021. And another current parameter that Laura Valentukeviciute refers to for the alliance: “37 percent of all hospitals are specialist clinics, 716 facilities that are not involved in the care of corona patients,” says the activist.
Between 2019 and 2024, two billion in tax revenues are to flow into a fund, and one billion has already been distributed between 2016 and 2018. This promotes a structural change that leads to larger supply centers. The closings were concentrated in metropolitan areas with a dense network of clinics, said the former Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU).
In the Berlin metropolitan area, the SPD, the Greens and the Left do not seem to give the issue the highest priority; in any case, only a few pages of the coalition agreement deal with health. The Berlin Hospital Association (BKG) believes that some points are vague. Its managing director Marc Schreiner says: “The Berlin hospitals have to offer a modern infrastructure and secure the need for skilled workers. They want more digital applications and they want to become more sustainable. The increase in funding for all clinics announced in the coalition agreement can be a basis for solving these tasks – also with a view to possible special grants for climate protection. ”The BKG has calculated that the city’s clinics require investments totaling 350 million euros have – per year.
Those who have already had to use the services of an emergency room in Berlin know what is hidden behind the word investment backlog in hospitals, namely: long waiting times and nursing staff at their limit. Charlotte Rutz-Sperling puts it this way for the Wenckebach Hospital: “The rescue center is overflowing.”