Floods cause havoc in German hospital sector:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Recent flooding Germany has resulted in catastrophe for the health service, severely damaging several hospitals. 15 hospitals with a total of 5,000 beds in the federal states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony were affected as the river Elbe burst it banks following torrential rain last week. In Dresden alone some 2,300 patients were evacuated. The German hospitals association (DKG), together with regional state hospital associations, has been given the task of evaluating the damage. "The total cost of damage caused by the floods can not yet be exactly determined, but we estimate it to be in the billions [of Euros]," said the DKG's principal director, Jorg Robbers. Alongside costs for evacuation and the restoration of buildings, the main expense will come from replacing high-cost medtech equipment, says the DKG.