Saarbrücken. Saarland Health Minister Magnus Jung is “cautiously optimistic” that the Hospital reform overcome parliamentary obstacles this year. However, the prerequisite is that the states achieve improvements in the ongoing discussions with the parliamentary groups.
The schedule can only be kept if the Hospital Care Improvement Act (KHVVG) does not have to go to the mediation committee, the SPD politician from Saarland said on Tuesday at a summer meeting with journalists in Saarbrücken. But he is still hopeful that the law will be passed this year. The countries had been expecting the promised mid-September analysis the impact on clinic locations.
There are no planned closures
Regardless of when it comes into force, the law is already in force in all respects. As Jung reported, hospitals are already intensively examining how they want to position themselves in preparation for the assignment of service groups next year. Discussions on the new hospital plan will also be held in parallel in Saarland. The current plan expires at the end of 2025.
However, Jung has already made it clear that he wants to maintain the current locations. “We are not planning any hospital closures,” he assured. However, he hopes for coordinated priorities and an improvement in quality through concentrations of performance, especially in serious interventions.
Who cares about baby boomers?
Jung did not dispute a recent report by health insurers, which proposed reducing the number of hospitals from the current 18 to 12 in order to improve care facilities. “This gets us nowhere,” Jung said. Such proposals would ignore existing facilities and would therefore not be taken seriously by many.
In order to counter the foreseeable shortage of care for the elderly, Jung presented a “Saarland 66” program. The key points are strengthening prevention and building civic networks in the municipalities.
Money for employees
“Families currently provide 80 percent of care services. We cannot keep this in the baby boomer generation, which also has fewer children, nor can we compensate for it with the current care services,” Jung warned. That is why we now have to activate the younger generation of older people, on the one hand for their own health and, on the other hand, to do voluntary work for others.
According to Jung, the state wants to set up guidance structures and also make staff available to the municipalities. He describes the Saarland concept as a further development of the Rhineland-Palatinate “Community Sisters Plus”. “We need a bit of full-time work to strengthen the voluntary work,” said the health minister about the country’s financial commitment. (OK)