Heidelberg Hospital to convert to clinic

[unhappycamper]

Heidelberg Hospital to convert to clinic
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, January 24, 2008

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Heidelberg Hospital will shut down in June, sending pregnant women and sick people needing hospital admittance to German doctors and hospitals.

The decision to turn the 63-bed hospital — where Gen. George S. Patton died in 1945 and, since then, thousands of Americans have been born — into a health care clinic by this summer came earlier this month.

That’s when Europe Regional Medical Command officials decided the number of patients needing inpatient and maternity care was declining so much as U.S. military installations closed and units returned to the U.S. that the hospital had become an unaffordable luxury.

“When you look at meeting the needs of the patients, meeting the needs of transformation, of the Army Medical Department and the U.S. Army, it makes more sense to realign those assets to locations where they’re more critically needed,” said Col. Kyle Campbell, hospital commander.

Starting in late June, pregnant women will gradually be referred to German hospitals.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51872