Thurgau government criticizes agreement on cutting-edge medicine
Published: Friday, Feb 16th 2024, 08:40
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The canton of Thurgau wants to consider withdrawing from the Intercantonal Agreement on Highly Specialized Medicine (IVHMS). The government expresses its displeasure at the increased centralization in the allocation of service contracts. This is hampering the security of medical care in Thurgau.
Increasingly, areas and services with high case numbers are being assigned to highly specialized medicine and thus removed from cantonal hospital planning, the Thurgau government wrote on Friday in response to a political initiative from the Grand Council.
This development is taking place beyond economic competition and is due to the fact that the relevant IHMS decision-making bodies are unilaterally occupied by cantons with university hospitals. They have a great interest in a concentration of medical services. The dissatisfaction of various cantons with the current decision-making practice has reached a critical level.
The proposal continues: "If the cantons with university hospitals do not move, it is foreseeable that cantons will withdraw from the IVHSM, which would fundamentally call it into question."
Hospitals receive performance mandate
The Intercantonal Agreement was created on behalf of the federal government in order to carry out nationwide planning in highly specialized medicine. The decision-making body defines the highly specialized areas and decides which hospitals receive a service mandate.
The concentration of services for rare, complex and expensive interventions and therapies is intended to increase the quality and efficiency of service providers and is binding for the cantons.
"Konzentration ad absurdum"
Criticism has also come from the canton of Graubünden, for example. The original idea of concentrating highly specialized medicine at individual locations in Switzerland is becoming increasingly absurd, explained Hugo Keune, CEO of Graubünden Cantonal Hospital, at a media orientation in spring 2023.
In a pending motion, Martin Schmid (FDP), a member of the Council of States from the canton of Graubünden, is calling for a halt to efforts towards centralization. Only medical fields that are rare and are also considered highly specialized internationally should be defined as highly specialized.
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