Highest clinics operated more often than ever

Peak: clinics operate more frequently in 2013 than ever before

22/10/2014

According to a press release from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), so many operations and inpatient medical procedures were performed in 2013 as never before. Overall, there were just under 52 million interventions, 0.7 percent more than in 2012. However, the reasons for the increase remained unclear in the statistics.

The operations, with 15.8 million cases, accounted for approximately one third of the interventions performed in 2013. Non-surgical therapeutic measures accounted for 26.3 percent (13.7 million), diagnostic imaging 19.7 percent (10.3 million), and diagnostic measures 19.2 percent (10 million). The remainder consists of complementary measures and inpatient medication expenditures.

Group of over-65s is undergoing surgery most frequently
The over 65-year-olds with 41.9 percent, the largest group among the operated patients. Most often, this clientele performed operations on the intestine, on the bile ducts and in the installation of hip prostheses.

In the group of 45-64 year olds, athroscopic surgery on the articular cartilage and menisci was most common, followed by bowel surgery in women and inguinal hernia in men.

In the 15-44 age group, labor surgeries in particular played an important role. In the men of this age group, however, it was on the nasal turbinates and athroskopische operations on joints and menisci. In the under-15s the most common operations were the pharyngeal tonsils and the eardrum.

Number of hospitals and beds dropped
While the number of operations has increased, both the number of hospitals and the number of beds has declined. According to Spiegel online last year, there were "only 1996 hospitals compared to 2139 in 2005 and the number of beds fell by 23,000 to 500,700 ". (Jp)