Public general hospitals in Germany from 2005 to 2021

In 2021, the number of public general hospitals in Germany reached an all-time low, at 450, a decrease of 16 compared to the previous year. Figures have been decreasing at a steady rate since 2005.

Types of hospitals

In Germany, there are three different types of hospitals: public hospitals, private hospitals, and charitable or non-profit hospitals. Each of these hospital categories has slightly different patterns when it comes to the number in operation. Even though the number of non-profit general hospitals and public general hospitals have seen a consistent decrease over the past decade or so, the number of private hospitals tells a different story. Private general hospitals saw an increase in numbers in the early 2000s, and recently figures have remained stable and at higher levels compared to public hospitals. As the name suggests, patients going to private hospitals must have private health insurance or pay for treatment themselves, whilst public and non-profit hospitals take patients with both private and national (public) health insurance.

Patient care

Statutory health insurance spending on hospital treatments has only increased over the past two decades. This is likely due to not just the fact that people are living longer and therefore needing more medical treatment throughout their life, but also because medical science is always developing and new treatments are being introduced. These however, are usually not cheap. When in-patients are admitted to a public general hospital, they usually stay there for just under seven days. This could be due to several factors, such as sometimes a patient needs treatment for several days or because they need full-time specialist care whilst waiting for or recovering from surgery. Despite the decreasing number of public hospitals, it seems that the system is still coping well with a bed occupancy rate of around 70 percent. This suggests that if patients need a bed, then there is one available and that the system is not stretched too thin. Of course, this may not be the case in every hospital in Germany, depending on population density.