Bavaria is planning a mega-medical offensive. Munich is to become the number one healthcare location in Europe. Minister Markus Blume explains the details in an interview with our editorial team.
The Free State is currently pumping more money into its university hospitals than ever before in Bavarian history – and that is only the beginning. Billions will flow into the new LMU hospital in Großhadern alone in the next few years. The mammoth investments and the new strategy for a kind of joint Munich mega-hospital in the sense of close cooperation between the LMU hospital and the Klinikum rechts der Isar (TUM hospital) are intended to cement and expand the position of the state capital as the most important medical stronghold. Markus Blume is considered one of the architects of the future construct. In an interview, the Bavarian Minister of Science explains the ambitious plans and hurdles that have to be overcome.
This is Markus Blume
Name: | Markus Blume |
Party: | CSU, 2018 to 2022 Secretary General |
Origin: | Born in Munich, graduated from Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium |
Age: | 49 years |
Job: | since 2022 Bavarian Minister of Science; responsible for the university hospitals |
Education: | Graduate in political science; studied physics up to the intermediate diploma |
Family: | married, two children |
Religion: | Evangelical |
You have set the goal of making Munich the number 1 medical location in Germany. Sounds confident…
I’ll even go further: Munich should become the number one medical location in Europe.
How do you want to achieve this and within what time frame?
Munich is already number 1 in Germany and among the top 3 medical locations in Europe – but uncrowned. This is because our medical excellence is spread across many institutions and facilities. We have two excellent universities, each with its own university hospital. The LMU hospital even has two locations – Grosshadern and the city center. Until the end of July, we still had the German Heart Center as an independent entity in Munich, which has now been merged with the Klinikum rechts der Isar in the new TUM Klinikum. In addition, there is the Munich Helmholtz Center, which stands for absolute top medical research – for example in the field of diabetology and metabolic diseases. This means: All in all, Munich is already the clear number 1 in Germany. But up until now we have still lacked a common roof and a common strategy. We are changing that now!
To this end, they founded the “M1 Munich Medicine Alliance”. What does this alliance mean in practice?
M1 stands for first-class medicine from a single source. With 3,420 planned beds, we will be by far the largest university hospital location in Germany. The whole of Bavaria will benefit from this, and that is important to me. The central feature of M1 is the bundling of university and non-university facilities under one roof. Real innovations are a medical study center and a data integration center for the greatest treasure of modern medicine: data.
Critics see the merger as more of a flowery euphemism for a forced merger – among other things to save jobs and reduce costs.
The opposite is the case. In 2024, Bavaria will invest more in university medicine than ever before, while Karl Lauterbach’s hospital reform is a clear-cutting program for medical care across the country. The facilities under the M1 umbrella will not merge either, but will remain economically independent. And above all: we are not talking about downsizing, but about expansion! With M1, we are creating an institutionalized platform for collaboration – for the benefit of patients and medical progress.
What do patients get out of it?
We used to be considered the pharmacy of the world, but now we are more like the waiting room of the world.
You get maximum competence, especially at the interface between medical art and artificial intelligence. I am convinced that we have long had the key to treating diseases that are incurable today. It lies in the millions of data that we collect every day in the healthcare system. Germany is the world champion in collecting data, but we are a developing country in the use of this data. We used to be considered the world’s pharmacy, but now we are more like the world’s waiting room. We want to get back to the top of the world. To do this, clinical studies with large numbers of cases must be carried out. With the M1 merger, we are creating the conditions. At the same time, we are creating a great contact point for patients who need the latest, sometimes experimental therapies, and for research-based pharmaceutical companies that want to conduct clinical studies.
The strict data protection regulations are seen as a hindrance. Scientists even speak of a data protection disaster in international comparison. How do you assess this?
Our German understanding of data protection has become a real obstacle to innovation and is also becoming a health risk. New devices or drugs are no longer tested and developed in Germany. Companies prefer to go to the USA or Great Britain because it is much easier there. Until recently, we were not even allowed to exchange data between locations of the same hospital. For example, Großhadern was not allowed to simply send data to its own hospital in the city center and vice versa. With the reform of the Bavarian University Hospital Act, we have changed this and in doing so have pushed the boundaries of what is possible within national and European law.
The new building of the Grosshadern University Hospital is considered the centerpiece of the Bavarian medical initiative. What is the planning status?
On Saturday, September 14th, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of our largest university hospital with a big open day. Großhadern is a unique success story that we are now continuing. We are already taking the first step with the new Hauner Children’s Hospital, which is currently under construction, and the second is the new university hospital building. The state parliament will deal with the details in October. One thing is clear: Großhadern will once again be the largest and most complex new building project in the Free State. Our goal is to build the most modern hospital in Europe. To achieve this, we want to build a completely new building with five organ centers next to the existing building – the well-known “Toaster”. By separating the old and new buildings, we are guaranteeing the ongoing care of patients. The existing hospital will remain in operation until the new building opens.
When will the new clinic open?
The first development measures will become visible soon after the state parliament’s decision. The first construction phase is scheduled to be completed in the mid-2030s, and then a second construction phase will begin. We will also be building a staff dormitory by 2029. Housing is the most important thing in Munich. Nursing staff in particular are dependent on finding affordable housing in an expensive city like Munich.
How do you assess the role of the university hospitals in their cooperation with the Munich municipal hospital?
The new radical cure, which the city council majority decided on before the summer break, is the opposite of a Munich-wide coordinated supply concept.
Ideally, they form an optimal care tandem. However, the city’s hospitals have been stumbling from crisis to crisis for years. The new radical cure that the city council majority decided on before the summer break is the opposite of a care concept that is coordinated across Munich. We are already seeing that patients who do not actually need university medicine are ending up in the emergency rooms of the university hospitals. The concentration of the Munich Clinic on Harlaching and Bogenhausen will increase the pressure even further, especially in the city center. I therefore recently wrote a letter to the mayor and the health officer calling for better coordination. As a representative of eastern Munich, I am also very critical of the downgrading of the Neuperlach hospital and the closure of the obstetrics department there. We must not forget that Munich is a growing city and society is getting older. Being the capital of medicine must also mean being top-notch in terms of care.
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