Well-being - Minister of Health Criticizes Federal Hospital Map
For the past decade, the Thuringian Hospital Mirror, a publication praised for its thorough assessment of Thuringian hospitals, has been deemed superior to a newly introduced federal offering by the state's Health Minister, Heike Werner (Left). On Monday, in Erfurt, Werner presented the latest issue of the Thuringian Hospital Mirror and criticized the Federal Clinic Atlas, a more recent initiative by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
Werner pointed out that the Atlas, launched not long ago, contains numerous errors. She argued that the data used to generate the online platform is insufficient.
The states had suggested that the launch of the Federal Clinic Atlas be postponed until it gathered a larger dataset. Regrettably, they failed to convince Lauterbach of this.
Lauterbach appears to frequently imply that state-run hospitals and healthcare institutions do not prioritize the quality of care they deliver. Werner believes this is inaccurate.
The Thuringian Hospital Mirror and the Federal Clinic Atlas both contain data on the frequency of various treatments carried out in different hospitals annually. The Mirror, however, provides additional in-depth information for specific treatments. The first Thuringian Hospital Mirror was published in 2014.
The head of the Thuringian Hospital Association, Gundula Werner, shared similar sentiments regarding the Federal Clinic Atlas. She stated that while it's important to make patients aware of the quality of care in individual clinics, the Atlas does not adequately perform this function. As of now, 31 Thuringian hospitals with 39 locations are included in the survey, covering nearly 90% of the state's hospital beds.
Lauterbach described the Atlas as a "handy guide" to navigate Germany's complex hospital system when it was released in mid-May. The Federal Health Ministry plans to add more information for retrieval through this Atlas in the future.
The current Thuringian Hospital Mirror spotlights breast cancer treatment. It shows that hospitals participating in the surveys offer better care for affected women than the average German hospital. Examples include operating again on 8.1% of breast cancer surgeries in Thuringia, compared to 10.7% nationwide.
However, Gert Naumann, the chief physician at the Women's Clinic and Maternity Clinic at the Helios Clinic in Erfurt, expressed concerns about the increasing shortage of specialists. He cautioned that this could hinder the continued provision of high-quality care for breast cancer patients. Moreover, the growing workload in hospitals poses a threat to them. In the mid-1990s, patients typically spent 13 days in the hospital post-surgery. Today, patients of the Women's Clinic in Erfurt stay just 3.4 days.
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Heike Werner, the Thuringian Health Minister and a member of the SPD, expressed her criticism towards the Federal Clinic Atlas, a recently introduced initiative by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. In Erfurt, Werner highlighted numerous errors in the Atlas and argued that the data used to create it is inadequate. Despite the states' suggestion to delay the Atlas' launch until a larger dataset was gathered, Lauterbach chose not to postpone it.
