Bavarian hospitals turn to new model to keep smaller sites open
Wednesday 21st October 2026 on 05:15 in
Bavaria
Two-thirds of hospitals in Bavaria expect to post a loss this year, and converting smaller facilities to cross-sector care could help keep some locations open, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) reports.
Penzberg Hospital, part of the Starnberg Clinics group, is set to become a cross-sector care facility, known by its German abbreviation SÜV. From January, it will no longer carry out operations that require patients to stay in hospital. Its emergency service will operate only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and treat mainly less serious cases.
Sarah Ertl, managing director of Starnberg Clinics, said the facility would focus on conditions such as blood pressure crises, heart rhythm disorders and severe fluctuations in blood sugar. She said continuing to operate the Penzberg location as before would lead to growing losses and could ultimately force its closure.
The Bavarian Hospital Association expects around 20 of the state’s approximately 300 hospitals to switch to the SÜV model by 2028. The association is advising 12 facilities considering the change, its managing director, Roland Engehausen, said.
Under the model, facilities would receive funding for maintaining a defined range of services rather than relying on payments for each case. Engehausen said this could free them from pressure to carry out as many treatments as possible. He said the change was not a downgrade, but a way for smaller hospitals to focus on services they could sustain over the long term.
Penzberg’s capacity is expected to shrink from about 80 beds to 50. Some staff will be reassigned and may continue working at other facilities in the Starnberg Clinics group. Ertl said the location would remain a hospital, with a changed care remit, and that staff qualifications would be maintained.
Engehausen rejected concerns that the model would leave patients with serious emergencies worse off because it does not provide a 24-hour emergency department. He said patients suspected of having a stroke or heart attack, as well as people seriously injured in accidents, are already taken to hospitals equipped to treat them, rather than to the locations under discussion.
Ertl said she supported the changes from a medical perspective.