Health Minister Nina Warken is reportedly preparing to discontinue the “Federal Clinic Atlas” a project established by her predecessor, Karl Lauterbach, as a key initiative during his tenure. According to reports from the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), Minister Warken has ordered the dissolution of the ministry’s project group responsible for the online directory.
The project group, known as the “Federal Clinic Atlas” will be dissolved retroactively to June 2024, as specified in a recently released “Organizational Directive” cited by RND newspapers.
Initially intended to provide comprehensive information regarding the services and quality of approximately 1,700 hospitals across Germany, the Atlas faced considerable criticism from medical associations, hospital operators and patient representatives, necessitating revisions. Currently, it offers data on roughly 25 medical procedures, a selection that does not encompass the most common hospital treatments. Concerns have also been raised regarding incomplete data and a presentation format considered difficult for non-experts to understand.
In response, the German Hospital Federation (DKG) has offered Minister Warken the possibility of providing its long-standing “German Hospital Directory” in a format suitable for use on federal government websites, a system that was in place until April 2024. “We would like to strongly advocate a return to the proven solution and replace the Federal Clinic Atlas with the German Hospital Directory” DKG Chairman Gerald Gaß wrote in a letter to Parliamentary State Secretary for Health, Tino Sorge.
The DKG’s directory currently registers approximately 600,000 monthly visits, while the Clinic Atlas receives around 200,000 visitors per month. The DKG points to estimated annual costs of around €1.5 million for the Clinic Atlas, which it argues is disproportionate to its actual usage. In contrast, the DKG directory requires only annual funding of €120,000 for technical adjustments. Mr. Gaß concluded that returning to the established German Hospital Directory would represent a pragmatic and citizen-oriented step.