North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Health Karl-Josef Laumann, Ingo Morell, Matthias Mohrmann, Hans-Albert Gehle and Sandra Postel (from left to right). /Photo D
Berlin Hospital reform will fail if the concerns of the states are not addressed. North Rhine-Westphalia’s (NRW) Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) warned about this today.
In particular, Laumann continued, the effects of the planned new financing system must be clear. Buying a pig in a poke is not an option when it comes to this issue. In his assessment, this aspect should and will also interest the members of the Bundestag.
Although the Hospital Care Improvement Act (KHVVG) does not require approval by the Federal Council, the federal states could block the law by appealing to the Mediation Committee and postpone the planned entry into force of January 1, 2025, as was the case last November during the fight for the Hospital Transparency Act. Several health ministers have already made statements to this effect.
Regarding the ongoing implementation of the new NRW hospital planning, Laumann said it represents a solid basis for future inpatient care in North Rhine-Westphalia. The focus was on consensus rather than confrontation and, together with partners from the health system, a planning system was created in a process lasting several years.
“I can definitely recommend that the federal and state governments adopt the same approach. The North Rhine-Westphalia model can be implemented 1:1 nationwide and have a far-reaching reforming effect. Our planning leaves the responsible authorities the necessary space and scope for solutions that fit into an established hospital landscape, and leaves the constitutionally assigned planning sovereignty to the states,” Laumann emphasized.
Laumann said that with the introduction of performance groups for the first time nationwide, the focus is on clear quality specifications and real needs, while at the same time duplication of structures is being eliminated. Although the resulting concentration processes have not been easy for hospitals, they have helped shape the process. Something like this cannot be achieved through isolated political efforts, but only with local knowledge and joint development on the part of all those affected.
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Ingo Morell, President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hospital Societyagreed. From their point of view, NRW’s hospital planning provides an efficient and low-bureaucracy model. Although NRW’s hospital planning leads to painful cuts for many hospitals, they are already busy with calculations to analyse the significant impact on sales, but it was clear that a structural reform would have consequences.
Morell countered voices questioning the seriousness of the reform in North Rhine-Westphalia and its impact on structures, saying that a constitutional solution had been found to ensure long-term inpatient care. There is also no need to hide practical quality specifications in North Rhine-Westphalia, as he explicitly stressed. Concentration and specialization will create a notable change in the hospital landscape.
The reform of hospital structures at federal level should follow the model of North Rhine-Westphalia and focus on the essentials: a sensible aggregation of medical expertise through specialization, intelligent forms of cooperation between hospitals and high-quality care in the area, demanded Matthias Mohrmann, deputy chairman of the board of directors of AOK Rheinland/Hamburg, for health insurance companies.
According to Hans-Albert Gehle, president of Westphalia-Lippe Medical Associationthe service groups of the NRW hospital plan are characterized by a clear definition, taking into account medical training regulations, medically based quality criteria and objective selection criteria. This is still missing in the KHVVG performance groups. © aha/nfs/aerzteblatt.de