Because the federal government has generated surpluses of about 19 billion euros – 5.5 billion of which are asylum reserves that were not withdrawn although they were originally planned – the German Hospital Federation (DKG) is demanding that part of the surpluses be invested in hospitals. Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (CDU) welcomed the DKG’s initiative and is considering a sensible use of the surplus funds. However, not only hospitals should benefit, but also schools. Money is also needed for measures against climate change. Georg Baum, CEO of the DKG, explained that hospitals urgently need the money for investments in thin staffing, but also digitization projects and structural adjustments to the hospital landscape. The hospital structure fund also needs to be increased, as it is already overbooked by many projects and needs to be expanded. Investments in hospitals are a matter for the federal states; however, the federal legislator has already played a regulatory role in recent years. Franz Knieps, as a member of the board of the BKK umbrella association, shares Georg Baum’s opinion. He too would like to see structural reforms to improve quality in hospitals using concentration and specialization measures. Knieps also wants to see a reduction in sector boundaries and structural change, but with the involvement of the health insurance funds, also to be able to remedy the shortage of skilled staff. Structural reform of the outpatient and inpatient care offers with softening of the sector boundaries and transfer to other facility models are also conceivable for the board of the BKK umbrella association.
