"With its construction program for 2008, the state government wants to support hospital projects throughout the state which are important in terms of structural policy", said Minister President Günther H. Oettinger and Minister of Health Dr. Monika Stolz on Tuesday (11 December) after a meeting of the council of ministers in Stuttgart. "In the coming year, we will therefore be providing hospitals with 310 million euros." 162 million euros is to be funnelled into nine hospital projects via the 2008 construction program. In the budget, about the same amount has also been set aside for global investment in hospitals. This is intended for small construction projects or for replacement medical equipment, explained Oettinger and Stolz. "In preceding years, the money we spent on hospitals was a good investment as far as we are concerned. Independent observers have also praised our structural achievements in this regard." According to the state ranking carried out by health assessor Ernst Bruckenberger for in-patient hospital treatment, Baden-Württemberg is "clearly at the top of the league".
Important regional and local aspects of hospital policy
Oettinger explained that the projects envisaged for the 2008 hospital construction program can be divided into four categories: alteration and adaptation of regional and local hospital structures, improvement of important functional areas, continuation or completion of hospital renovation schemes and construction of planned special medical facilities. The council of ministers has give the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs the job of initiating the corresponding financing procedures. Important regional and local aspects of hospital policy could be decided on for the Winnenden, Emmendingen and Constance locations, said Oettinger. He then went on to say that what must especially be emphasised is the money to be provided for the new hospital structure in the Rems-Murr district with the replacement new building in Winnenden for the locations in Waiblingen and Backnang. Projects in the Markgröningen, Lahr, Constance and Friedrichshafen hospitals should help to comprehensively improve important areas of health care. Moreover, the already commenced renovation measures at the hospitals in Ellwangen and Mannheim are to be completed or continued, confirmed the Minister President. Finance for the specialist clinic in Neresheim, he continued, was planned to promote better treatment of patients in a persistent vegetative state (coma vigile). "We are sure that the envisaged construction measures constitute a balanced program with which a contribution can be made to better treatment for the population", stressed Oettinger.
Decisive breakthrough in the hospital policy of the states
"With our method of financing hospitals – namely a mixture of individual and global grants for projects - we have had very good experience and we want to continue along this path", explained Minister Dr. Stolz. "If we gave up this system and changed over to the federally uniform method of providing finance through the health insurance companies as envisaged by the federal government and the health insurance companies, we would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We have good reasons for refusing to hand over the funds and responsibility for hospital policy to the federal government or health insurance companies." The other federal states, said the minister, now shared the position of the Baden-Württemberg state government with regard to hospital policy - and not only in this point.
According to a decision arrived at just a few days ago during the conference of health ministers chaired by minister Monika Stolz this year, the states decided on a comprehensive concept for hospital policy. Here, the states also confirm their support for dual hospital financing as well. "We agree that the financial commitment of the states to the provision of finance for hospitals is an expression of the need to provide existential care and is therefore to be retained", confirmed Stolz. "After the intensive and difficult discussions of the past few months, we see this decision as a crucial breakthrough in the hospital policy of the states for the coming years and as a success for the work done in Baden-Württemberg."
Source: Ministry of state
