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Martin Waser will step down from office at the end of June 2021. With him, the vice president of the USZ Hospital Council and another member resign.
With his resignation, Martin Waser wants to ensure that the USZ “can focus on the enormous challenges of the present and the future.”
The top management of the University Hospital of Zurich has drawn the conclusions from the disputes of the last months: on Monday, the president of the hospital council Martin Waser, the vice president Urs Lauffer and the councilor Annette Lenzlinger announced their resignation at the end of June 2021.
Recently, the University Hospital of Zurich has barely gotten out of the negative headlines. The heart surgery clinic is at the center of criticism. Its former director, Francesco Maisano, is accused of scientific misconduct, falsification of documents and misappropriation of conflicts of interest. In addition, services not provided at the clinic are said to have been charged for. Criticism was also drawn from other clinics.
The reputational damage was great, management now wants to make room for a fresh start. “With our resignations, we are creating the prerequisites for the USZ to fully focus on the enormous challenges of the present and the future,” says Waser. The former Zurich SP city council has been president of the hospital since 2014. The decision was not made easy, “but the last few months have been at the limit of what is possible in terms of workload,” said the 66-year-old technician.
Waser speaks of a personal decision, but there must have been pressure from the canton. According to a press release, Health Director Natalie Rickli (svp.) Is now explicitly seeking a person with operational management experience in a larger company, if possible in a hospital, to succeed Wasers. This can be interpreted as a criticism of the former councilor Waser, who lacked this experience. Rickli had also accused the hospital council in an interview in the “NZZ am Sonntag” last May of not exercising sufficiently its managerial responsibility.
“Felt time is over”
Rickli declined to comment on the resignations Monday. The Health Directorate has commissioned an external report to identify opportunities for improvement in the area of governance and supervision. The document will be published on Friday.
The hospital council has also commissioned several reports, including on the status of cardiac surgery. Outgoing hospital counselors want to finish ongoing exams and initiate necessary improvements. “We want to lay good ground for the new leadership,” says Waser.
With the announcement of the resignation, the cause of the university hospital is far from over. In particular, political discussions will again gain momentum, on the one hand on the succession in the hospital council, on the other hand, on the structural problems that have arisen.
The hospital council is elected by the governing council, but the choice must be approved by parliament. And the cantonal councils are already taking positions. Esther Guyer (gp.) Spoke of the need for a political separation. “A former councilor or a former governing council is out of the question as a successor,” he says. It sounds similar with the president of the Zurich SVP, Benjamin Fischer. The health director has clearly indicated that “the time of felt is over.”
Structural issues are also likely to be the subject of heated debate. In particular, the current tax law has been criticized. It rewards physicians when they perform a lot of interventions and thus creates a false incentive. In fact, studies show that patients with additional insurance are operated more frequently.
Upper salary limit for doctors
The health department wants to change this. In July he presented the bill for a new hospital law. This stipulates that administrative physicians in cantonal hospitals should now receive an upper salary limit of one million francs per year. Additional fees for the treatment of private patients should also flow in full to the hospital’s operating accounts. By increasing the basic salary of the medical staff and reducing the variable remuneration component, false incentives for treatments that are not indicated or are only weakly indicated will be avoided.
In the report of the governing council, the upper salary limit is justified by the fact that the salaries of health workers are paid by the general public. “Very high salaries for doctors meet with misunderstanding of the population the more time passes.” However, too wide a salary range and non-transparent pay systems could also create tensions within the hospital. The Cantonal Council will decide on the new hospital law, the proposal is currently being discussed by the Health Commission. As can be heard from the parties, the rate adjustment is likely to be acceptable to most.
