This morning the purchase agreement concluded between representatives of Krankenhauszweckverband Warburg (made up of the owners of the hospital to date: District of Höxter 60%, City of Warburg 40%;) and of the Board of Management of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, Bad Neustadt, was notarised before a notary in Warburg. The 100% takeover of St. Petri-Hospitals Warburg by the listed hospital group headquartered in the Rhön is to take effect retroactively from 1 January 2008. The parties agreed to maintain secrecy regarding the purchase price.
The District Council of Höxter as well as the City Council of Warburg a few days ago had unanimously decided to sell St. Petri-Hospital Warburg to RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. This decision was made subject to an agreement being reached on pensions. At St. Petri-Hospital Warburg these have until now been covered by the federal and state pension scheme of Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder (VBL). The parties, though, are confident that the decision will go ahead as intended.
St. Petri-Hospital Warburg has 153 beds, and as at 31 December 2007 had a staff of 292 persons. The inpatient service offering comprises the main departments of internal medicine (79 beds) and surgery (46 beds) as well as the affiliated practitioner departments of urology (17 beds), children’s medicine (7 beds) and otorhinolarynology (ENT, 4 beds). In 2007 a total of 5,658 patients were treated.
Faced with the current challenges in the German healthcare system – notably higher costs combined with capped budgets – the existing owners wanted to find a strong partner for St. Petri-Hospital Warburg early on. By deciding in favour of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, the District of Höxter and the City of Warburg are also ensuring that high-quality healthcare can be provided to people locally at the Warburg site also in the future. The private hospital operator succeeded in convincing the existing owners above all by its long-standing experience in the privatisation of previously public hospital facilities, its own medical concept developed specially for the Warburg site as well as its commitment for a new hospital building.