Only a small proportion of wealthy patients in hospitals

Only a small proportion of wealthy patients in hospitals

08/24/2014

Even though rich foreign patients are a coveted clientele in some hospitals, their share of around 0.5 percent in German hospitals is only very small. Nevertheless, the medical tourism brings the German health care system over one billion euros.

Jacks are looking for sources of income
In Southwest clinics well-heeled foreign patients are a coveted clientele, according to a message from the news agency dpa. Ultimately, they are only one „Drop in the ocean“. According to the Baden-Wuerttemberg Hospital Company (BWKG), underfunding is present at all around 270 clinics in the state „a general problem“. BWKG spokeswoman Annette Baumer told the German Press Agency in Karlsruhe: „Clinics are looking for other sources of income.“

Advertise for Russian tourists
This statement is also in relation to a controversial new representation of the Freiburg University Hospital in Baden-Baden, in the resort Russian tourists in their native language with the slogan „The only wealth is our health“ courting. Like the online edition of „Swabian newspaper“ reported, this encounters local incomprehension and resistance. Accordingly, the CDU-MPs Tobias Wald and Karl-Wolfgang Jägel fear one „Competitive situation of clinics in public ownership“ at the expense of normal patients. The city of Baden-Baden and the district of Rastatt as a carrier of the local hospital Mittelbaden require from the country, „to stop the advertising of the University Clinic Freiburg in Baden-Baden.“

Medical tourism brings over a billion euros
But even if the proportion of foreign patients nationwide as well as nationwide is only about 0.5 percent, he is obviously very lucrative. So had the „Doctors newspaper“ In January reports that medical tourism now rinse almost 1.1 billion euros in the German health care system. Around ten percent of hospitals in this country reportedly devoted themselves to this business area. Most of the foreign patients who receive treatment here come from Russia. (Ad)