"In the UK these people would probably get palliative care," says Prof Michael Isfort at the Deutsches Institut für angewandte Pflegeforschung. He is talking about the German ventilation market. An operator reckons there are 25,000 patients on intensive care for respiration, many of whom are on ventilators. That compares to 4,000 patients on ventilators in the UK at the height of Covid. Most German patients are in the outpatient sector and some are in for-profit centres run by private equity-backed businesses. Statutory insurers are trying to cut costs after a new law IPReG (Intensive Care and Rehabilitation Strengthening Act) was passed in October 2021. Meanwhile, Opseo, one of the three big players may sell this autumn for a price tag of €1bn.
September 7, 2022
