Emergency care in Harburg: SPD fights for Helios Clinic MariaHilf!

Emergency care in Harburg: SPD fights for Helios Clinic MariaHilf!

On July 3, 2025, Eftichia Olowson-Saviolaki from the SPD spoke up and discussed emergency care in the south of Hamburg. The situation is getting worse: While the Asklepios Clinic Harburg and the Groß-Sand Hospital have been providing emergency care in this area since 2017, the Helios Clinic MariaHilf has since then only been responsible for gynecological and pediatric emergencies. In a worrying turn of events, the Groß-Sand-Klinik has announced that it will stop providing emergency care and will only continue to operate as a district clinic in the future. The consequences are clear: more and more strain on the Asklepios Clinic Harburg, which is already under pressure with around 180,000 residents in Harburg.

Olowson-Saviolaki called on the district assembly to review the reactivation of the Helios MariaHilf clinic in order to ensure emergency care in Hamburg. The loss of the Groß-Sand location is perceived as an additional burden that further exacerbates the already tense situation. The demand for a comprehensive solution is becoming more urgent than ever.

The current status of emergency care in Hamburg

Current developments in emergency care break down when looking at certifications and the actual delivery of emergency care. For example, the Evangelical Amalie Sieveking Hospital offers comprehensive options for heart attack and stroke care.

A look at the statistics

But what do the statistics show? Dr. Dominik von Stillfried, Chairman of the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance (Zi), stated in the “Government Commission for Modern and Needs-Based Hospital Care” that the total number of emergencies had increased from 2009 to 2019. This trend is particularly evident in emergencies admitted to hospital, which increased continuously until 2019, followed by a decline in 2020 and stagnation in 2021. Current figures from the Robert Koch Institute show that the use of emergency rooms did not increase significantly until 2023 due to a lack of staff.

With a decline in the use of on-call medical services from 163,000 cases (2019) to just 63,000 cases (2021), it is also clear here how the healthcare landscape is changing. Despite an increase in emergencies in the past, emergency rooms are now faced with overload, resulting more from dwindling medical staff than from an increase in patients.

In summary, it remains to be seen how the situation in emergency care in Hamburg will develop and whether the required measures can actually be implemented. The reactivation of the Helios Clinic MariaHilf could provide a decisive impetus for ensuring health care in the south of Hamburg.

Further information on the topic of emergency care can be found at Süderelbe24, Hamburg.de and [ZI].