Basel Region Explores Hospital System Merger; Warm Weather Waste Piles Up; Gundeli Gentrifies

News on 30 June, 2015     Back in March of this year the directors of the University Hospital Basel and the Basel Cantonal Hospitals serving Basel Stadt and Baselland announced the exploration of harmonizing their strategies.  Yesterday, the same directors went further saying the hospital systems intend to enter into in-depth cooperation in health care delivery services, and are not ruling out the possibility of merging the hospital systems.  The motivation behind all the negotiations and possible restructuring is the increasing cost pressures both systems individually face, and the hope that cooperation, if not outright merger, would allow the hospitals to enjoy greater economies of scale and better negotiating power.  The boards of the two hospitals have now begun the process of exploring concrete proposals which they hope would be ready for implementation in the third quarter of 2016.  The Cantonal Hospital in Bruderholz will likely be decommissioned as part of the cost savings a merged hospital system would seek.  Apparently, the hospital has been struggling economically, and unable to compete for patients as a full service hospital system.  The Canton of Baselland would see significant savings in tax expenditures shutting the hospital and possibly additional tax revenue of the buildings were converted to much needed residential housing.   *************************   Keeping Basel clean in the warm months of the year is no easy feat.  During the period from March to October, as people regularly take to the streets, parks, plazas and riverside to enjoy the town they also manage to leave behind about 1000 tonnes of waste that must be diligently disposed of by the town sanitation department.  On one Saturday night alone a few weeks ago over 4900 kilos of waste was collected and cleared from the Barfusserplatz, Claraplatz and Kleinbasel Rhein River's edge.  An army of 29 employees are needed to remove and clean the waste starting at 4:00 am after partyers begin heading home, the goal being clean streets in time for early morning joggers and jet-lagged tourists.  To counter the possibility of stray trash, the city implemented a program a few years ago placing 100 or so large blue dumpsters in critical locations to ease the disposal of trash.  In addition, a small corps of trash detectives are employed by the city that hand out 80 franc fines for littering and 200 franc fines for trash disposal without the use of a Bebbi Sagg.   ******************************   The Gundeli district of Basel is proving to be the most popular among immigrants and expats over the last decade.  According to figures published by the Statistical Office of Basel-Stadt, 10968 new residents moved to the quarter since 2004, more than any other area within the city limits.  Among the draws of the quarter are apartments with large residential areas, preferred by immigrants settling in Basel with families, as well as a relative availability of apartments unlike basel in general.  In addition, the quarter offers access to multiple tram lines, proximity to the SBB rail station and many restaurants, parks and cafes.  Patricia Bernasconi of the Basel Renters association warns however, that the growth in immigration, especially by corporate sponsored expatriates is driving up the costs of rents and driving out long-time residents of the district.  Ms. Bernasconi points out that this has already happened in the St. Johann and Wettstein districts where Novartis and Roche have their headquarters.