German hospitals face bankruptcies

Many hospitals in Germany may be forced into bankruptcy due to soaring energy prices and inflation, unless the federal government comes up with some form of assistance, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on Sunday.

“If we do not react quickly and really drastically, there will be closures,” Lauterbach told ARD broadcaster. He stopped short of assessing the scale of the potential crisis, but admitted that “the hospitals will face a very drastic liquidity problem in the next few months.”

The German Hospital Federation complained last week that the funding gap could add up to around €15 billion in 2022 and 2023, but Lauterbach brushed aside that estimate saying that nobody can predict how expensive electricity will be next year. The federation, however, said that extra energy costs account for just about a third of that sum, while…