Holzminden clinic closes: Lack of rescue staff
A rescue is off the table: the hospital in Holzminden is closing. "The realities that have now set in leave no other choice," the district announced on Wednesday. A week and a half ago, the town and district of Holzminden were still hopeful that the hospital could be saved and had decided to invest millions in it. The medical care centers in the region are to be retained in order to contribute to basic outpatient medical care in the town and district.
"The hospital is no longer accepting new patients with immediate effect," the provisional insolvency administrator announced. The majority of the approximately 70 patients will be discharged as normal in the next few days. In the few cases where this is necessary, a transfer will be organized. The approximately 420 clinic employees were informed of the closure on Wednesday.
The Protestant Agaplesion Hospital and the Agaplesion Medical Care Centers have been in provisional insolvency proceedings since the end of August. The city and district had originally planned to invest 12 million euros in the hospital. In addition, jobs were to be cut, the number of beds reduced to 40 and the opening hours of the emergency room restricted.
However, there is now a lack of staff for these plans - including in key positions, the district announced. According to the provisional insolvency administrator, there are around 160 redundancies. In addition, new legal and financial aspects have become known that would represent an incalculable risk for the coming years. In order to save what could be saved, the administration had "completely reached the financial pain threshold. Any investment beyond this would no longer be justifiable," the district announced. In the case of the medical care centers, the budgetary risk is manageable.
"At the moment, it seems almost impossible to put clinics that are in financial difficulties back on a safe course," said District Administrator Michael Schünemann and Holzminden's Mayor Christian Belke (both non-party). Due to numerous simultaneous crises and uncertainties resulting from health policy decisions in recent years, hospitals in rural areas have less and less chance of survival.
The closure of the Holzminden hospital means fewer options for urgent medical care in the area. Many local hospitals are struggling with staff shortages, further compromising the availability of healthcare services in rural communities.
Source: www.dpa.com
