Health Committee in the House of Representatives: “We need a future fund for Berlin’s hospitals” – Berlin

The capital of the largest economy in Europe has 60 hospitals with almost 22,000 beds. Since Germany also has by far the most hospital beds per inhabitant, we can rightly claim that Berlin is at the top of Europe when it comes to medical care.

That’s true and not true. Because quantitatively we are well equipped. In the meantime, a billion-dollar backlog of investments has built up in the quality of hospital equipment (read an overview of the topic here, T+). Anyone who has walked through many a department of our internationally recognized and effective Charité will find that not only a new coat of paint is necessary. When it comes to the hot topic of “digitization”, especially in medicine, there is a lack of money in all houses.

We also need changes in data protection in Berlin. It’s hard to imagine, but Berlin’s hospitals run the risk of not being able to apply for funding from the federal innovation fund because Berlin’s data protection regulations are not up-to-date and nobody feels responsible. Of course that’s not possible!

State-of-the-art hospital equipment is a very important factor in order to optimally care for patients today, especially in times when there is a shortage of employees in all professions and in order to be able to recruit good medical staff for the hospitals. The state-owned company Vivantes has submitted a very specific investment plan for each individual house, detailing how much money is needed to renovate the hospitals. The merger with the German Heart Center Berlin will give the Charité a new building project that is unique in the world and has to be financed by the Berlin Senate and the federal government. But there is definitely still a great need for investment in buildings and technology in our “beacon of German cutting-edge medicine”.

There are still almost 60 hospitals “left” that urgently need investments. And most citizens may not even know that the federal states and thus the Senate are responsible for this. The Senate has approved 150 million euros for 2022 and 155 million euros for 2023 as investments for the houses outside of Vivantes. This is a fraction of what is needed. For the future viability of the healthcare industry in Berlin, there must be financial resources across the hospitals. From the KEH hospital in Lichtenberg to the forest hospital in Spandau, we need investments in buildings and technology, for example for modern diagnostics, MRTs, medical technology and operating theatres.

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The solution: If the state of Berlin cannot or does not want to invest, it must be solved differently. Let’s set up a future fund, the “Berlin Health Capital Fund”, for which the public sector takes out loans, but private savers can also pay into it and receive a fixed, small return in return. Still better than keeping your money in a savings account at the house bank at the moment. In the long term, the state of Berlin would have to pay back the investment sum. But in the long term, in small steps, and every Berliner who takes part would have contributed to the investment in the future of the city through their share and small interest. Since every investment in Berlin generates taxes and at the same time secures jobs in construction, trade and the service sector (city return), the long-term return of the funds would be a worthwhile investment.

We need one billion euros per year for a fixed period of five years to invest in all denominational and private hospitals, Charité and Vivantes! The fund could be set up by the state-owned investment bank Berlin.

Such a future fund would be a sign for the whole republic and even for Europe that Berlin is investing in the breadth of its hospital landscape and of course also offers Berliners the best possible medical care.

Such a “Berlin Health Capital Fund” would also send out a signal about how important Berlin takes the health economy as a whole. The international science and research landscape that has arrived in Berlin-Brandenburg, the growing start-up companies in the region and not Last but not least, the many companies in the medical and care industries would have the certainty: the healthcare industry has a future in Berlin!Perhaps the next BioNTech will then come from Berlin.