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Many hospitals are experiencing significant losses, need millions in aid and are having to cut services. Find out more about the topic from the different parts of the country and join in the discussion on the multilingual “dialog” debate platform.
Most hospitals in Switzerland are in financial difficulties and are making losses. A problem that has existed for years and has become even worse with the corona pandemic. This is despite the fact that there are fewer and fewer hospitals that offer basic care.
The situation has been made worse by inflation, as hospitals are unable to adjust their rates to the rising prices. As a result, some had to close, others laid off staff, and others were dependent on government help.
Millions for the Freiburg Cantonal Hospital
One example is the Cantonal Hospital of Freiburg, which has been making losses since 2016 and has now recorded a loss of over 60 million francs. The leadership has initiated a reorganization; Until the measures take effect, the canton has to step in.
The cantonal parliament has given a guarantee of over 100 million and a loan of 70 million, but the voters have the last word on June 9th, as the article in the regional journal shows:
Chur retains its pediatric intensive care unit
The children’s intensive care unit at the Graubünden Cantonal Hospital was threatened with closure. However, resistance to this emerged and 30,000 signatures were collected. The national expert committee for highly specialized medicine (HMS) recently awarded the hospital the service contracts for the intensive care unit for a further six years, reports the RTR program Telesguard:
High prices for medical devices in Ticino
Against this background of financial difficulties, the sale of pacemakers, which, at over 10,000 francs, were several times more expensive in Ticino than in other cantons, caused discussion.
It is a case that illustrates the very opaque system of the medical device market and which politicians are rebelling against, reports the RSI program “Seidisera”.
The disillusionment of young doctors
Another problem is emerging for the Swiss healthcare system: a third of medical students want to give up the profession because of working conditions, like RTS reported.
The lack of human contact, long overtime and the time spent on administrative tasks instead of caring for patients often cause enthusiasm to quickly fade.
The head of the health service in Neuchâtel provides information about this in the “Forum” of the French-speaking Swiss radio station RTS.
Looking for staff abroad
It’s not just finances that are causing problems for hospitals, but also the shortage of skilled workers. This forces them to increasingly look abroad for suitable personnel. As a detailed analysis by Swissinfo shows, a double offensive is underway to counteract this: training is to be strengthened and working conditions are to be improved. What is interesting is that Switzerland already has one of the highest densities of nursing staff in relation to the population.
However, it will take some time for these measures to bear fruit, while healthcare costs continue to be a major problem for the Swiss population.