According to the German Hospital Federation (DKG), hospitals are being hit hard the rising prices of energy and healthcare products.

According to a survey by the German Hospital Federation, nine out of ten hospitals in Germany use gas for heating, and this energy source has become a huge scarcity on the market. On top of that, the new gas tax from October will make the extra costs for institutions much higher than expected. Another survey found that a single hospital ward consumes as much energy per year as four average-sized family houses.

For example, the University Medical Centre in Mainz expects its energy costs in 2022 to be 2.7 times higher than in the previous year.

96 per cent of the hospitals asked in the above-mentioned survey are already unable to cover the higher costs from their own revenues. The problem is the funding system for hospitals. To put it simply, hospitals receive money from the state for investments and from health insurance funds for operating costs through so-called „flat-rate case-by-case payments.” These sums were last renegotiated in December 2021, but since then the world has changed dramatically and inflation has risen significantly.

A medium-sized hospital will pay over 6 million euros more for gas and electricity in 2023 than in 2021, the German Hospital Federation says. The federation expects a deficit of ten billion euros by 2023. As a consequence, some medical services will become more expensive, for example, hospitals will only be able to procure various cancer therapy drugs and other medication at higher price points. According to the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, three-quarters of hospitals could close 2023 with a negative balance.

The federation points out that without inflation-related compensation to stablise hospitals, the institutions will be threatened with mass lay-offs, which, in turn, will have immediate and negative repercussions in patient care.

@DKGev fordert #Inflationsausgleich von vier Prozent: Mehrkosten für #Gas und #Strom, hohe Rechnungen externer Dienstleister – DKG-Chef #Gaß sieht viele #Kliniken am Rand der Zahlungsunfähigkeit. Vater #Staat müsse ran. #Krankenhaus #Klinik #Inflation https://t.co/e3dhaD91Up

— Ärzte Zeitung (@aerztezeitung) September 5, 2022

Extra costs could be reduced through upgrading and development, but clinics lack the funds for making investments. Professionals share the general view that policy-makers fail to pay sufficient attention to the problems clinics need to tackle, to labour shortages in particular, as the allocated money is simply not enough to retain the workforce. The energy needs of hospitals are high throughout the year, regardless of the season: the bigger a hospital is, the more expensive it is to maintain. The energy consumption of institutions with at least 600 beds, for example, corresponds to roughly that of three thousand households. efore the crisis, hospitals’ annual energy costs averaged around eight hundred thousand euros, but this has radically changed by now and no one can see the end of it at the moment.