New three-phase plan Private healthcare providers want a place in the hospital landscape in the future too
Private healthcare companies fear that they will miss out in the three-phase plan for intercantonal hospital planning. They are therefore demanding a say from the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Public Health (GDK).
30.04.2026, 10:30
30.04.2026, 11:06
SDA
In December 2025, the GDK presented the three-phase plan, which it adopted at a plenary meeting. The aim of the plan is to achieve greater concentration in specialized hospital services. The background to this are various initiatives in the federal parliament.
In the first phase, the GDK is commissioning an analysis of current demand and a forecast of future demand. By around 2029, the cantons then want to jointly determine which treatments and interventions in hospitals are part of basic care and which are part of specialized care.
Based on this division, uniform criteria for awarding service contracts to hospitals will then be defined from 2029.
This process will shape hospital care in the coming decades, the industry association Ospita announced on Thursday. Not only public, but also private healthcare companies should have a say in this process.
The cantons are taking on a "multiple role" in hospital planning, it writes. They are owners, planners, supervisors, co-financiers and tariff authorities. According to FDP member of the Council of States and Ospita President Benjamin Mühlemann, the three-phase plan becomes a risk "if cantons give preference to their own hospitals".
According to Ospita, such preferential treatment jeopardizes "freedom of choice, cost containment and the ability to innovate". Private healthcare companies, as represented by the association, should not be left out of the equation - after all, they provide more than a quarter of all inpatient care days.
Waiting list longer, emergency fuller
Every year, more than 330,000 patients are treated by Ospita members. According to the association, around 30 percent of operating theaters, 27 percent of emergency wards and 23 percent of HSM locations are privately owned. This shows that "private healthcare companies are systemically relevant".
"Without us, the waiting lists would be longer and the emergency wards even more overloaded," says the head of a private foundation in the communiqué. Ospita is of the opinion that those who support the system should also be allowed to help shape it. The association is therefore calling on the GDK to be included in the committees and working groups "systematically and on an equal footing" with public service providers.
When it comes to awarding future service contracts, quality, cost-effectiveness and patient access should be decisive, argued Ospita - politics or regional policy should not play a primary role.
