Hospitals Bern Insel Hospital Group cuts up to 120 jobs
The Insel Hospital Group in Bern is cutting up to 120 jobs. Staff associations are criticizing the planned cuts, which will inevitably result in a reduction in services.
It has been known for some time that the hospital group is under financial pressure. It also became clear in the summer that job cuts would be unavoidable. The extent of the cuts was unclear. Now the group announced on Thursday that it intends to cut five percent of its personnel costs by mid-2025.
The hospital group has also initiated further measures to achieve economic recovery, such as reducing investments and regaining market share.
However, this alone, as well as the reduction of temporary positions and natural staff turnover, will not be enough to reach the target, the Group continues. It is therefore expecting a maximum of 120 structural redundancies.
The hospital group therefore launched the statutory consultation process on Thursday. This gives the Personnel Commission and the affected managers the opportunity to make suggestions as to how redundancies could be avoided or the economic impact on those affected could be minimized. The process will run until the end of October.
Uncertainty and resentment
The industry and staff associations immediately criticized the announced job cuts on Thursday. Due to the tense staffing situation in the healthcare sector, job cuts would inevitably lead to a reduction in services.
The work content would be further condensed, placing an even greater burden on staff. Existing training and further education courses should be spared from cuts in order to counteract the existing shortage of skilled workers.
The Bernese section of the Swiss Professional Association for Nursing Staff, the Association of Public Service Personnel (VPOD) Bern and the Bernese section of the Association of Swiss Assistant and Senior Physicians (VSAO) are behind the appeal to forego staff cuts.
They went on to say that the announced cost-cutting measures were causing a great deal of uncertainty among staff and were met with incomprehension.
Under financial pressure
Hospitals throughout Switzerland are currently under financial pressure. Lack of tariff-based compensation, shortage of skilled staff, inflation, investments in major projects: There are many reasons for the economic worries.
The Insel Group has also been struggling for some time. It recently announced that it had slipped even further into the red in the first half of 2024. The half-year loss had doubled from CHF 34.4 million in the previous year to CHF 68.7 million.
At the beginning of September, Chairman of the Board of Directors Bernhard Pulver told the Keystone-SDA news agency that the Group was not focusing on escaping under the rescue umbrella set up by the canton of Bern to secure the hospitals' liquidity.
It was not liquidity that was the problem, but profitability, Pulver emphasized. Sustainable improvements in the framework conditions were needed. For example, in terms of tariffs, so that the company does not slide from one financial crisis to the next.
With the new main building of the Inselspital in Bern, a new hospital information system and the closure of the Bern-Tiefenau and Münsingen hospitals, the Inselgruppe has recently completed various major projects - with corresponding personnel and financial burdens.
SDA
