"We are rethinking health"

Healthcare Lunch with Charité CEO Prof. Dr. Heyo Kroemer

Staff shortages, digitalization and medical progress: medicine is facing many challenges. What are the solution strategies?

Moderated by Dr. Harald Hasselmann, Chairman of the VBKI Health Committee, Prof. Dr. Heyo Kroemer reported on how he intends to make Europe's largest university hospital fit for the future with the Charité 2023 strategy. "I am surprised that the whole of Germany remains so relaxed despite the knowledge of demographic change," said Heyo Kroemer, introducing the triangle of challenges that he believes medicine is facing. After all, in the foreseeable future there will be a third fewer workers available than there are today - while the amount of work will remain the same. In addition, the social systems are based on an intergenerational contract that is becoming increasingly unbalanced: "No one knows how this is to be solved."

One approach for medicine: a reform of the healthcare system before the ageing of society takes full effect. While there are 26 hospitals in Denmark with a population of 6 million, there are just under 1,900 in Germany with a population of 83 million. Instead of complementing each other, many small hospitals in this country offer the same broad spectrum of medical services without being able to provide the necessary specializations in an emergency. These hospitals can hardly be run profitably and will have the biggest staffing problems in future. According to the hospital reform that Kroemer helped to develop, there should only be three categories of hospitals with uniform minimum requirements in future: those that provide basic care close to home, hospitals that provide standard and specialist care and maximum care providers such as university hospitals. The aim: fewer, but more specialized hospitals and thus a reduction in the burden of basic care for hospitals such as the Charité.

With the digitalization of medicine and - above all as an internationally recognized university hospital - the constant pursuit of medical progress, Charité is facing further necessary but costly challenges. The Charité 2030 strategy process is intended to remedy this. "We are rethinking healthcare," says Krömer. In 2030, Charité will have a more inclusive view of people, open up areas at the boundaries of specialist areas and patient care and always justify its actions scientifically. To achieve this, Charité needs a strong biomedical ecosystem and cooperation partners such as the Vivantes clinics - but above all a lot of money. After all, achieving these goals requires highly qualified and motivated employees and a massive investment in infrastructure. But money is often in short supply in Berlin, as we all know, so Kroemer still has to pull out all the stops to implement the strategy.