Health News

Many clinic treatments in Germany

Germany with the second most clinic treatments

07.04.2013

The hospital sector in Germany has been the subject of discussion for years. To put the latter on a valid statistical basis, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a recent paper, the News Agency „dpa“ hospital care in Germany compared with the figures of other OECD countries. As a result, hospital care per hospital is extremely good compared to hospital beds, the number of hospital treatments is higher than in most other industrialized countries, and costs are reasonably well under control.

The OECD nevertheless sees some risks in the structure of the hospital sector. Although the hospital care could be maintained for a longer time in the current form due to the financial capacity of the German health system, but „the continuous growth of hospital volume at an already high level“ bring the risk „oversupply and oversupply of hospital services“ with himself. Opposite the news agency „dpa“ explained the executive board of the AOK-Federal Association, Uwe Deh, in view of the OECD survey, that already today there is an enormous pressure of competition between the clinics and the impression arises that for financial reasons more certain clinic treatments are carried out. According to Deh, patients report „increasingly over their dissatisfaction and experiences with questionable interventions.“ His concern was that the high competition between clinics on the back of the patients will be held. According to the AOK-Bundesverband and other health insurances, urgent reforms are needed in the hospital sector.

Germany in second place at the clinic treatments
According to the OECD figures, Germany ranks third among the industrialized countries in terms of hospital beds per capita (8.3 per 1,000 inhabitants). In terms of clinic treatment, Germany achieved second place with 240 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2010, behind Austria. According to the OECD, this is also due to the traditionally high importance of the hospital sector in Germany. But the supply structure, which at first glance looks particularly good, also carries risks. In Germany, for example, significantly more patients are receiving inpatient care than in other industrialized countries. For example, in Germany, an average of 35.7 out of every 1,000 inhabitants are hospitalized for cardiovascular disease, while the average is only 19.6 in all OECD countries. According to the experts, this deviation is not based on a significantly different rate of morbidity, but is mainly due to the preference for inpatient treatment versus outpatient treatment.

Stagnant reform of the structure of the hospital sector
The OECD survey served as a template for a conference with Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr on the development of treatment numbers in the clinics. Based on the data, structural reforms in the hospital sector will also be discussed. However, the German Hospital Association (DKG) has already indicated that the cited figures in their view, have little meaning. For example, Germany's expenditure on hospital care - despite the more comprehensive benefits - is at a rather average level, based on gross domestic product. However, a possible expansion of outpatient care with a simultaneous reduction of inpatient stays has been discussed again and again from a medical point of view for years. Because the in-patient treatment is by no means basically equivalent to a faster or higher healing success. (Fp)