BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - According to expectations of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), patients will find a changed hospital landscape in Germany from this fall. From fall 2024, there will be a "strong dynamic", Lauterbach said on Thursday at the start of a series of talks on the reform project with municipal umbrella organizations, self-government and the federal states. The minister expressed confidence that the timetable for the hospital reform could be maintained.

From May, insured persons will be able to use an online clinic atlas to research which procedures are carried out in which clinic in their region and how often. The next step will be to provide information on complication rates.

The plans for the actual clinic reform are currently still being coordinated within the government. However, there are no fundamental reservations within the coalition. In this respect, the reform will go ahead.

Information on the entire spectrum of hospital services, sorted according to so-called service groups, will then follow in the fall. "Then there will suddenly be huge transparency." Then everyone will be able to see where which services are offered and what consequences it would have for care if, for example, certain procedures were no longer performed at a hospital.

Up to now, the hospital system in Germany has been flying blind, according to Lauterbach. Now, for the first time, the financing of hospitals will be based on solid data about their services. "We will see a drastic restructuring." Billions in aid had averted the disorderly demise of hospitals. Instead, there will be the urgently needed orderly restructuring and dismantling./bw/DP/ngu