Number of hospitalizations in Switzerland continues to rise
Published: Tuesday, Nov 26th 2024, 11:00
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The number of hospitalizations in Swiss hospitals rose by around one percent last year, with 1.5 million inpatient stays. Meanwhile, the number of outpatient consultations fell slightly compared to the previous year.
The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) counted 23.9 million outpatient consultations in its hospital operation statistics for 2023, compared to 24.4 million in the previous year, as the FSO announced on Tuesday. One reason for this decrease was the approximately 0.6 million consultations billed exclusively according to the pandemic tariff in 2022, it added.
At the same time, according to the FSO, operating costs will continue to rise in 2023 - by around CHF 2.2 billion compared to the previous year. Overall, the hospitals recorded combined expenditure of 36.1 billion francs. This resulted in a negative operating result of 784 million francs for all hospitals combined. 743 million of this was attributable to general care hospitals and 41 million to special clinics. In the previous year, the hospitals had recorded a loss of 288 million francs.
Dependent on foreign skilled workers
Swiss hospitals also employed 2.7 percent more staff compared to 2022 - the equivalent of around 4960 full-time positions. In total, almost 186,000 full-time positions were filled.
Swiss hospitals are heavily reliant on specialists with foreign qualifications: Almost half (45.6 percent) of the doctors employed in Swiss hospitals and almost a third of the nursing staff (31.9 percent) obtained their qualifications abroad.
Both shares increased slightly again compared to 2022. In the case of doctors, more than 19% had a degree from Germany, followed by degrees from France and Italy. Among nursing staff, employees with a degree from France were the most strongly represented.
©Keystone/SDA
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