Hi,

I search cases/examples of private hospitals that were established in
the area of a public hospital and therefore represent a competitive
threat for public hospitals.

By area, I mean same neighborhood or same city or same region or same
county. The issue here is the proximity of these hospitals that
creates competition between them.

The focus is on the following countries:

High Priority: UK and Germany

2nd priority: France and Netherlands

3rd priority: Other Western Europe countries.

This search can go backward as far as 10-15 years ago. Of course
recent events of this kind are welcome.

What I want to receive:
- Names of hospitals (private against public) that were in such
competition - as many as possible
- Their Country
- Web link to these hospitals 
- Where you found the relevant information about the opening of a
private hospital in same area as a public hospital

Thank you.

HI,
How much do you know about the German health system?

This is a free comment and a layman?s description of the system, but I
think it is relative to your question and perhaps to the difficulty in
answering it directly.

In Germany, the great majority of persons have health insurance from
one of the 267 "Allgemeine Krankenkassen"  ("AKK", general health
insurance organizations), and a minority (generally better off) have
private health insurance.  Fees for medical services are set out in
detail, applicable to all patients, but the privately insured pay 2.3
times what the others do (who never see their bills.  They go straight
to the AKK.  The privately insured pay their bills and then submit
them for reimbursement, except for previously approved hospital
costs.).  The privately insured do get favored treatment, perhaps not
medically, but by appointment, single instead of 2 or 3 bed room, a
little more of the doctor's time.  Some doctors treat only privately
insured persons (except for emergencies, of course).

Private hospitals and clinics serve the privately insured, who can
also be treated in public hospitals.  Public hospitals may also have a
private wing ("Belegstation") with beds reserved for patients of
individual doctors who are not employed by the hospital.  Sometimes
these doctors maintain a special clinic in the hospital that
supplements it other services, for urology, as in this hospital, for
example:

http://www.klinikinfo.de/einblick/koethen/urologie.htm

Private hospitals will, of course, accept AKK patients in an
emergency, only charging the lower fees until the person can be moved
or agrees to cover the additional cost of the services, as this site
explains:

http://www.finanztip.de/recht/medizin/ur36p99001.htm

   (You should be able to get a Google translation of these links.)

Thus, it can generally be said that there is a two class system and
that private hospitals serve the privately insured, but who also can
seek treatment in public hospitals, paying the higher price.  Thus
there is some competition for these patients, and perhaps public
hospitals compete by trying to attract doctors to establish a private
wing in the hospital or to use the hospital?s facilities for
operations on private patients.

Privately insured patients use the hospital where their doctor operates. 
Thus, I believe, location, proximity of private and public hospitals
is not significant.

Hope this helps.