The "Contract for the takeover of the municipal hospitals in Ulm by the state of Baden-Württemberg" marks the birth of Ulm University Hospital. The takeover agreement is dated 1 January 1982, typed on a typewriter and bears two red seals.
Today, it is impossible to imagine the medical and scientific map of the region and the country without the hospital. With its 29 clinics and 15 institutes, it offers patients in the region and beyond the highest level of inpatient and outpatient medical care.
The new surgery building was inaugurated and put into operation in 2012. After four years of construction, patients can now enjoy better care options and new services. The relocation of the clinics from Safranberg to Eselsberg with more than 100 patients during ongoing operations was a logistical challenge that everyone involved mastered very well.
On 18 May 2012, the Dermatology Clinic moved into the new building on Oberer Eselsberg. A further six clinics with 118 patients followed on 15 June. The move went smoothly and according to plan, with all patients arriving safely in their new rooms by 12.20 pm.
The new surgery and dermatology centre was built on time and on budget over a four-year construction period. The building is located in the immediate vicinity of Internal Medicine, and both facilities are accessed via a new shared main entrance.
The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 10 April 2008 in the presence of the then Minister President Günter H. Oettinger, and on 28 April 2010 we celebrated the topping-out ceremony in the presence of State Finance Minister Willi Stächele and State Social Affairs Minister Dr Monika Stolz. The inauguration ceremony took place on 10 May 2012 with Minister President Winfried Kretschmann.
Review by Albert Schira († 2019), Administrative and Commercial Director of Ulm University Hospital from 1982 to 2006, from 2007:
Buildings in need of renovation but highly qualified employees were taken over by the state from the city when Ulm University Hospital was founded on 1 January 1982. Albert Schira, Administrative and Commercial Director at the University Hospital from 1982 to 2006, remembers.
The takeover contract lies ready to hand in the desk drawer
There was no university hospital until 1981. The professors were employed part-time as municipal chief physicians in the municipal hospitals. The polyclinic was run by the university, and individual clinics such as dermatology, radiology, ENT and ophthalmology were run by the Bundeswehr. I can no longer remember who really took the initiative to take over the municipal hospitals as a state hospital and put the necessary emphasis on it.
The Lord Mayor at the time was Chairman of the Baden-Württemberg Hospital Association and his municipal hospitals were very close to his heart. However, there were also representatives within the city leadership and in the municipal council who were in favour of the transfer to state ownership. I am thinking here of the First Mayor Dr Gerhard Stuber and the parliamentary group leader Udo Botzenhart, and the later Lord Mayor and then State Secretary Ernst Ludwig also played an important role. As the university's representative for the takeover of the municipal hospitals, I was involved in all the negotiations and still have the remarkable takeover agreement from 1981 on my desk.
From a rump hospital to full care
It was always the policy of all hospital board members to turn our rump hospital into a centre with a full range of disciplines. Some narrow-track solutions were used as entry aids and other areas were well designed from the outset. In any case, every step had to be fought for and won, and today our almost complete range of specialities with cardiac surgery and neurosurgery, psychiatry and neurology and a complete dental clinic is something to be proud of.
... Yes, even an independent department for cardiology was only possible in internal medicine when the new internal medicine building was completed in 1988, and radiotherapy was also set up later. Other departments that were only added after the foundation of the hospital are paediatric and adolescent psychiatry, forensic medicine, medical microbiology, naturopathy and clinical pharmacology, as well as the schools for dieticians, midwives, speech therapists, documentation, radiology assistants and surgical assistants.
However, departments have also been dissolved, e.g. the paediatric clinic was previously headed by four chief physicians, the women's clinic by two chief physicians, and only the courageous intervention of Prof.Ernst-Friedrich Pfeiffer in the Ministry of Science prevented the then modern and already decided by the committees small state with eight departments in internal medicine.
No room is the same today as it was in 1982
The best way to follow the course of time is through buildings. There is probably no room in our university hospital that is still designed and used in the same way as it was 25 years ago. The Safranberg is no longer recognisable. Until 1988, it contained 564 beds for internal medicine and surgery, but today, after several extensions and changes, it seems too small for surgery alone. Patient comfort is still inadequate, but compared to the 8-bed rooms of 1982, the completely desolate and failure-prone technical supply network, the leaking roof covering, the bomb damage in the roof truss (1982!) and the ugly exterior façade, the conditions today are almost paradisiacal.
Even the Michelsberg is no longer what it was. The new building for oncology and the new ward block in the paediatric clinic, the new operating theatre and delivery room in the women's clinic, the new building for the entire ENT clinic and the outpatient eye clinic are additions to the complete renovations in the urology, eye clinic, women's clinic and paediatric clinic. The future of the hospital naturally lies at Oberer Eselsberg. With the medical clinic, radiotherapy, dental clinic and the administration building, it has already gained a foothold, and the new surgery building is in the pipeline.
The figures speak for themselves
The 25 years of development illustrated by the buildings and structures can be seen in very specific features: On 1 January 1982, the University Hospital had 951 beds - today, in 2007, there are 1128. The number of our inpatients has risen from 27,000 to around 40,000 and the length of stay has fallen from 11 to 7.7 days.
The most pleasing aspect is the number of employees. Whereas in 1982 there were still 2599 employees, there are now around 5400 qualified jobs in Ulm, including third-party funded positions, etc., and almost 6000. The "rural" university hospital had to start 1982 with a loss carried forward from the municipal hospitals from 1981 totalling the equivalent of 9.1 million euros. Thanks to favourable conditions, we quickly made up the shortfall and have been in the black ever since.
I am grateful that I was able to work for the university and the hospital for 32 years. I wish the university and the hospital every success in the future.