Bavaria closes emergency rooms as hospitals shift to outpatient care

Bavaria is closing hospital emergency departments and concentrating specialist care at fewer locations while expanding outpatient services, BR reports. The hospital in Kösching is the latest example: its emergency department closed on August 1 and the facility is being converted into a health centre.

Patients with minor injuries and illnesses can still receive treatment at the new emergency outpatient clinic. General practitioner Josef Schwarz examined a girl who had twisted her ankle when she arrived with her mother. The clinic can treat wounds, infections and most other less serious cases, he said, but not conditions such as pulmonary embolisms or heart attacks.

Patients with severe conditions are now taken directly to hospitals in Eichstätt or Ingolstadt. In many cases, they had already been transferred there before the Kösching emergency department closed.

Fewer, larger hospital locations

The Altmühltal Nature Park Clinics operate at locations in Eichstätt and Kösching. The clinic management said staff shortages ultimately led to the closure of the Kösching emergency department.

Clinic director Marco Fürsich said patients would continue to receive adequate care. Severe cases were already being treated in Eichstätt, while Kösching now has an emergency outpatient clinic alongside specialist and general practitioner services.

The plan is to treat minor and moderate cases locally and refer severe cases to specialists. Services will be concentrated in Eichstätt as the Kösching hospital becomes a health centre.

Tirschenreuth has also operated without an emergency department since 2024. Patients with more serious illnesses are sent to Weiden or Marktredwitz.

The closure of emergency departments and entire hospital locations is part of a nationwide trend. According to Bavaria’s Health Ministry, 27 hospitals have closed over the past decade, while the total number fell from 411 to 393. Capacity was generally increased at other hospitals.

Health economist Boris Augurzky said hospital density in Germany remains high compared with other European countries. He said the key questions were which locations would be needed in future, how quickly patients could reach a hospital and what quality of care it could provide.

Concentrating services at fewer locations could bring economic benefits and improve treatment quality, Augurzky said. Doctors who perform the same procedure several times a day are likely to provide it at a higher quality than doctors who perform it only once every two weeks, he said.

Augurzky and Bavaria’s Health Ministry expect more hospital locations to disappear in the coming years. In Mainburg, people are still debating how to preserve the hospital.

Ingolstadt prepares for more patients

Many people in Kösching are critical of the loss of the emergency department. The nearby hospital in Ingolstadt, about 10 kilometres away, expects to receive more patients and is increasing its medical and nursing staff, managing director Andreas Tiete said.

The hospital also plans to expand its emergency department into a currently little-used part of the building. The project is intended to use space more efficiently and improve treatment procedures. Construction applications are already being processed, with completion expected in the second half of 2027.