ENAsklepios Hospital Hamburg is not one building but seven acute hospitals in different parts of the city, and the department, not the name over the door, decides which one a patient needs. Families searching for it usually hold a referral or discharge summary and want to know which house treats their diagnosis.
Below: how the group came to Hamburg, which hospitals belong to it, where foreign patients are referred and how admission works. For the whole city, see Hospitals in Hamburg.
Asklepios Germany: the group behind the Hamburg houses
Asklepios is a private hospital group with sites across Germany, and it came to Hamburg by taking over the city’s hospital operator, Landesbetrieb Krankenhäuser Hamburg (LBK). It took 49.9 per cent and the management on 1 January 2005 and has held 74.9 per cent since 1 January 2007; the city kept 25.1 per cent. That is why former municipal hospitals now share one name: Asklepios Kliniken Hamburg.
More than 18,000 people work for the Hamburg company, the city’s largest private employer. For patients, a group means one management and possible transfers between houses, but each hospital has its own admission office, doctors and estimate.
The group name is not a quality mark for every department: choose by specialty and by how routine the operation is for the team. Asklepios also runs hospitals far beyond Hamburg, covered on Asklepios hospitals in Germany.
Which hospitals the Hamburg group includes
The Hamburg group consists of seven acute hospitals and one rehabilitation clinic; the oldest hospital is Asklepios Klinik St. Georg in the city centre. The others are Altona, Barmbek, Harburg, Nord, Wandsbek and the Westklinikum. St. Georg has 24 departments, 651 beds and 67 day-clinic places. It is an academic teaching hospital of the University of Hamburg and hosts the Asklepios Campus Hamburg of Semmelweis University in Budapest.
St. Georg is Hamburg’s oldest municipal hospital. On 30 October 1823 the General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus) opened on today’s site with around 1,000 beds, and even then self-paying patients could have a room of their own. In 1866 a young Robert Koch did a medical clerkship here, as the Robert Koch Institute’s record of his career notes.
Asklepios is one option in Hamburg, not the only one: the city also has the UKE Hamburg university medical centre and the Helios ENDO-Klinik Hamburg, a specialist orthopaedic hospital of another group.
Which departments foreign patients come to
Foreign patients are referred to a specific department rather than to “Asklepios” in general, for example general and visceral surgery at Asklepios Klinik Altona, headed by Professor Daniel Perez. Visceral surgery covers the abdominal organs from the oesophagus to the rectum, including the stomach, intestine, liver and pancreas; what matters is how routine the procedure is for the whole team.
At St. Georg, emergency stroke care is a focus of neurology: there is a certified stroke unit, and after a severe stroke the hospital’s own early rehabilitation department takes over. Urology is available at Altona, for example. Some Asklepios doctors work elsewhere: Dr Jens Allendörfer heads acute neurology at the Asklepios neurological hospital in Bad Salzhausen; neurologist Dr Michael Hartwich is medical director of the Asklepios Schlossberg Klinik in Bad König, where Dr Oliver Trapp heads internal medicine; urologist Dr Dimitrios Skambas is medical director of the Asklepios Stadtklinik in Bad Wildungen.
Anaesthesia and intensive care at Asklepios Klinik Altona are led by Professor Gunter Nils Schmidt, in the same hospital as Professor Perez’s department. For a foreign patient the intensive care unit matters as much as the surgeon: the first days after a major operation are spent there, and the team decides when the patient can move to a normal ward.
Admission, rooms and the practical side
Admission starts with translated records and imaging in DICOM, the digital format that shows the doctor the whole examination rather than single pictures. The department decides whether the case needs a hospital stay or can start as an outpatient appointment, and a written estimate follows.
German hospitals separate the standard ward bed, part of the general hospital services, from optional extras (Wahlleistungen) booked and invoiced separately: a single or comfort room and personal care by the senior consultant or their deputy. At St. Georg they are open to the privately or supplementarily insured and to self-payers. They buy comfort and a choice of doctor, not different medicine: everything medically necessary is part of the general services.
Admission of an accompanying relative can be requested through the hospital’s service for optional extras, and Komfort Plus rooms have free wireless internet. St. Georg is in central Hamburg near the main station; underground line U1 runs from the station to the Lohmühlenstraße stop right outside.
Frequently asked questions
Is Asklepios in Hamburg one hospital or several?
Several. The Hamburg group has seven acute hospitals, namely Altona, Barmbek, Harburg, Nord, St. Georg, Wandsbek and the Westklinikum, plus a rehabilitation clinic, each with its own departments and admission office. The first step is to find the department that fits the diagnosis; it decides where the patient goes.
Do all Asklepios doctors work in Hamburg?
No. Asklepios has hospitals in many German cities, so a doctor from the group may practise far from Hamburg: neurologist Dr Jens Allendörfer, for example, works in Bad Salzhausen, and urologist Dr Dimitrios Skambas in Bad Wildungen. Check where the doctor works before sending documents or booking travel.
Can I choose the senior consultant and a single room?
Yes. These are optional extras, and under the German Hospital Remuneration Act they must be agreed in writing in advance, after the hospital has told the patient in writing what they include and cost. They may not impair the general hospital services, so necessary treatment does not depend on them.
How AlenMed arranges treatment at Asklepios in Hamburg
It starts with discharge summaries, histology reports and imaging. AlenMed has them translated and sends them to the department; the doctor says whether the case is theirs, and the hospital issues an estimate with the official invitation letter for the visa.
AlenMed works with 86 partner hospitals in 38 cities and 345 doctors, and the company office is in Munich. In Hamburg a coordinator meets the patient, interprets at appointments and collects the discharge summary and the follow-up plan.
This material is for information only and is not an offer. Treatment tactics are set by a doctor at an in-person consultation.