In an international comparison, Germany has an above-average number of nursing staff. "However, we have too many hospital cases in comparison because too few patients are treated on an outpatient basis," emphasized Pfeiffer. She called for a "courageous hospital reform". The hospital commission recently made "good suggestions" about this.

At the beginning of December, the committee set up by Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recommended fundamentally changing the previous flat-rate system and taking the economic pressure off the clinics. In the future, a fixed amount is to be defined for upfront services in order to ensure good care in rural areas as well. Inpatient and outpatient care should also be closely interlinked.