Schleswig-Holstein health minister outlines hospital reform impacting small island clinic

Kerstin von der Decken, Schleswig-Holstein's Health Minister, toured the region to detail a restructuring that will reclassify the Inselklinik on Föhr as a sector-spanning provider, ending its 24-hour emergency care at 4 p.m. The 18-bed hospital currently handles about 500 night and weekend admissions annually, a figure highlighted by local politician Christian Stemmer, who questioned where patients will go when the clinic closes.

Senior emergency physicians Lena Varnhorn and Stefan Sudmann noted that telemedicine and regional networks could sustain emergency care despite the downgrade. The reform follows a national law that forces hospitals to meet stricter quality and volume criteria by 2027, favoring larger centers and prompting closures of smaller sites across the state. Schleswig-Holstein now operates 102 clinic locations, with a total of nearly 15,000 beds and over 8,000 doctors treating half a million cases each year, funded by roughly 3 billion euros from statutory health insurance. While the minister promised a compromise to maintain round-the-clock emergency readiness, details on funding and implementation remain unsettled.