Neuruppin/Potsdam, 26 March 2020

Brandenburg’s coalition partners SPD, CDU and Green Party agreed on an amended budget for 2020 including 6.6 mio. EUR for the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB) and unanimously adopted the motion in the budget and finance committee. The conclusive plenary session is scheduled for 1 April 2020.

MHB president Prof. Edmund Neugebauer says this is excellent news for the university and the general public alike: “Five years ago the MHB was founded to ensure and improve medical care for the state of Brandenburg. The promised funding will serve to further expand our research activities. This is a historic moment, and our thanks go to all dedicated supporters in politics, society and the health sector who for years have advocated appropriate funding for the MHB.”

In a joint letter to Prime Minister Dr. Woidke, all factions of the district assembly Ostprignitz-Ruppin had explicitly demanded to “release previously approved funding for research projects at the Brandenburg Medical School without delay and include such funding to the amount of at least 4 mio. EUR in the amended budget to be approved in the near future. With innovative teaching formats and exemplary concepts, the MHB is a successful pioneering institution nation-wide, and a major contributor to the health sector in the north west of Brandenburg”.

District administrator Ralf Reinhardt who also chairs the MHB supervisory board welcomed the unanimous support from all factions of the district assembly, and the speedy and favourable decision. Especially in times of crisis like now, so Reinhardt, we see how essential it is to promote research activities and the quality of research and teaching to ensure excellent university education: “It is more important than ever to ensure that physicians stay in Brandenburg after graduation and thus improve health care in rural regions. Many medical offices in the country will close over the coming years; today’s medical students will play an important role in maintaining the level of health care in the state of Brandenburg. I am therefore highly pleased that the Brandenburg government has now created a sound and reliable basis for research at the MHB as a community-funded institution.”

Minister of Science Manja Schüle was also pleased with the decision to support the Brandenburg Medical School in intensifying its research activities. She mentioned the perspective of a positive effect on accreditation by the Federal Government’s Science Council. She underlined the strong practice orientation of medical education at the MHB and the importance of a secure supply of medical care in the region, specifically in view of the current combat of the Corona pandemic. She explicitly thanked the medical school and the 130 student volunteers for their work in Brandenburg’s hospitals and outpatient facilities.

Contact:
Dr. Eric A. Hoffmann
Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane (MHB)
Head of Communications
+49 3391 39-14160
eric.hoffmann@mhb-fontane.de

Alexander von Uleniecki
District Ostprignitz-Ruppin
Press officer / Offices of District Administrator Ralf Reinhardt
+49 3391 688-7015
alexander.von.uleniecki@opr.de