[Hospital legislation in the Federal Republic of Germany and its effects on psychiatric hospitals (author's transl)].

The article discusses the hospital laws of several land governments enacted subsequent to the hospital financing law of the Federal Government, in respect of the influence exercised by these laws on the internal structure of the hospital. The fact that the laws apply to all kinds of hospitals, and hence also to big psychiatric hospitals, is considered a disadvantage for psychiatric care. Such care is obviously hampered, on the one hand, by the legislative demand for departmentalization of the individual fields according to specialist subjects, representing a setup which is opposed to the realization of patient care in accordance with the requirements of the communities and citizens who expect to be cared for on an individual and not on a schematic basis, whereas, on the other hand, the new structures of management stipulated by the law do not provide for the inclusion of representatives of the new groups of professions now engaged in psychiatric activities. The model of regrouping the hospital structure into sectors instead of medical specialist departments, is presented and contrasted with the proposed model. It is recommended to arrange for representation of the non-medical and non-nursing professions in the managing boards, as well as to take into account the sociotherapeutico-rehabilitative interests as forming part of the conceptual approach to care in psychiatric hospitals, via special hospital committees.