- Vogt demands answers from the government on UKSH situation
Christopher Vogt, the parliamentary group leader of Schleswig-Holstein's FDP, is calling on the state government to provide more support for the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH). "In September, we will be looking very intensively at how the medical care will continue and how the economic situation of the clinic is developing," Vogt told the German Press Agency. "Currently, it seems that everyone is talking about the UKSH, except for the responsible state government, which is certainly part of the problem."
"The state government is very reserved on this issue, but we need answers," said Vogt. The financial equipment of the only maximum provider in the state with the two locations in Kiel and Lübeck is the responsibility of the state. In the long term, the planned hospital reform will probably relieve the UKSH. "But the state will have to take care of the clinic financially, that is beyond doubt."
Criticism from the Medical Association about staffing situation
The University Hospital has recently made headlines with a high deficit, personnel problems, and low morale. The state auditor has demanded that the state government relieve the clinic of all investment costs. According to current calculations, the renovation, operation, and maintenance of the hospital will cost at least 3.7 billion euros by 2044. When the contract was signed in 2014 with a private investor, 1.7 billion euros were mentioned.
"The UKSH will not be able to finance the high project costs on its own, even though this was originally agreed with the state," the auditor criticized. So far, the clinic has almost exclusively financed the project costs with loans. The result is continuously growing debts and increasing interest burdens. In June, the state parliament already decided to increase the credit framework by a further 600 million to 2.25 billion euros. However, the problem has not been solved, according to the auditor.
Emergency situations
The president of the Medical Association, Henrik Herrmann, criticized in the "Kieler Nachrichten" that anesthesiologists are sometimes taking over nursing tasks in the operating rooms of the UKSH. The high solidarity of doctors towards the nursing staff is fundamentally to be welcomed, he said. "That doctors take over nursing tasks in an emergency situation is a very beautiful sign of team-oriented cooperation in the interest of the patients." However, this should not become a permanent state for anesthesiologists.
The state government, being the financial overseer of the University hospital due to its status as the only maximum provider in Schleswig-Holstein, needs to address the criticisms and financial concerns raised by Christopher Vogt and the Medical Association. The University hospital, facing high deficits, personnel issues, and low morale, is in dire need of financial aid and investment relief from the state government to alleviate its debt and interest burdens.
