BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - In view of the difficult economic situation of many hospitals, a top-level meeting of the federal and state governments and health associations on the planned hospital reform is to take place in Berlin on Thursday (4 p.m.). Lower Saxony's Health Minister Andreas Philippi (SPD) announced on Monday that he wanted to press for more money for hospitals this year at the meeting.

Specifically, Philippi said that the federal government should allow the so-called state prime rate to be increased as early as July 1 instead of in 2025. For the hospitals in Lower Saxony alone, this would mean an additional 250 million euros.

According to Philippi, the increase as of July was generally perceived as a promise by Lauterbach, but the draft bill mentions the year 2025 for the increase. "This is a promise that must be kept. You can't hide behind the finance minister," said the minister from Lower Saxony, who also accused the federal government of a lack of practical relevance with regard to the hospital reform. "With the draft bill, you can see that a professor as Federal Minister is not a doctor who knows what is happening out there," said the SPD politician about his party colleague Lauterbach.

According to dpa information, representatives of hospitals, health insurance companies and doctors as well as three federal states each with SPD leadership (A-side) and CDU leadership (B-side) have been invited to the top-level talks at the Federal Ministry of Health./cwe/DP/ngu