Hospitals in Hamburg, Germany: University, Network and Specialist Care

Hamburg is Germany’s second-largest city, and its hospitals range from UKE, a large university medical centre, to specialist hospitals that treat only joints or only children. In between are the hospitals of the private Asklepios network and non-profit hospitals run by church organisations and foundations.

Below: how hospital care in the city is organised, AlenMed’s eight partner hospitals, which hospital fits which problem, how Hamburg compares with other cities and how treatment is arranged. Each hospital has its own page with doctors and a request form; the cards below lead there.

Hamburg, Germany Hospitals: How Care in the City Is Organised

Hospitals in Hamburg fall into three groups: the university hospital, a private network and independent non-profit hospitals. UKE Hamburg is a public university hospital in the Eppendorf district: its 13 centres bring together more than 80 clinics, polyclinics and institutes, covering every specialty alongside research. Each year about 98,000 patients are treated there as inpatients and about 497,000 as outpatients. The Asklepios network has held 74.9 per cent of LBK, the former municipal hospital company, since 2007, while 25.1 per cent stayed with the city. The third group is made up of hospitals run by church organisations and foundations, several of them narrowly specialised.

For a patient from abroad this suggests a simple rule. A rare or complex disease that needs doctors from several specialties at once is best taken first to the university hospital or a large academic hospital. The university hospital also helps when the diagnosis is still unclear: examinations by different specialists take place under one roof, and difficult cases are discussed jointly. A clearly defined problem, such as a worn-out joint, a bowel tumour or an operation on a child, is often better handled by a specialised hospital that deals with such cases every day.

List of Hospitals in Hamburg, Germany, Working With AlenMed

AlenMed works with eight hospitals in Hamburg: seven individual hospitals and the Asklepios network, to which St. Georg also belongs. The table is a quick overview; details, doctors and a request form are on each hospital’s page, which the cards below lead to.

Hospital	Type	Main fields
UKE Hamburg	public university hospital	all specialties, research, organ transplantation
Asklepios Clinic St. Georg	maximum-care teaching hospital, 651 beds	cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, haematology, dermatology
Albertinen Hospital	Hamburg’s largest non-profit hospital, 770 beds	cardiac surgery, oncology, obstetrics
Altona Children’s Hospital	children’s hospital since 1859, part of UKE	paediatric surgery and burns, spine, neurosurgery
Helios ENDO-Clinic Hamburg	specialist clinic of the Helios group	hip and knee replacement, revision surgery, infected prostheses
Israelite Hospital Hamburg	foundation hospital, founded in 1839	digestive diseases, including tumours
Marienkrankenhaus Hamburg	Catholic general hospital, about 600 beds	surgery, cardiology, oncology, gynaecology and obstetrics, geriatrics
Asklepios Hospitals	a network, not a single hospital	varies by hospital

Which Hamburg Hospital for Which Problem

In Hamburg the choice of hospital follows the diagnosis, because each partner hospital has its own strong departments. For a worn-out hip or knee, a revision of an artificial joint or an infected prosthesis, the specialist address is Helios ENDO-Clinic Hamburg, a clinic dedicated to joint replacement, sports orthopaedics and spine surgery; here an infected prosthesis can be exchanged in a single operation. Chronic inflammatory bowel disease and tumours of the digestive organs are the field of the Israelite Hospital, whose visceral oncology centre includes centres for bowel, stomach, oesophageal and pancreatic cancer.

If the heart needs surgery, the choice is between Albertinen Hospital and Asklepios Clinic St. Georg, as both have cardiac surgery. Albertinen is a teaching hospital of the University of Hamburg that treats about 68,000 inpatients and outpatients a year. Organ transplants are performed at UKE, while neurosurgery and haematology with stem cell transplantation are available both at St. Georg and at UKE.

A child who needs surgery is best seen at Altona Children’s Hospital, which has paediatric surgery with a burns unit, a paediatric spine centre and paediatric neurosurgery. For gynaecology and childbirth, and for older patients, including those with rheumatic diseases, Marienkrankenhaus Hamburg is a good fit: a general hospital with sixteen departments and a perinatal centre of the highest level for high-risk pregnancies. This is orientation only: the final choice comes after the hospital has reviewed the reports. Cancer patients can use OncoMap of the German Cancer Society to see the certified cancer centres in Hamburg.

Hospitals in Germany: Hamburg or Another City?

Hamburg is the right choice when the specialised hospital you need is located here. The clearest example is the ENDO-Clinic, which treats only joints and the spine. There are practical reasons too: the family has relatives in northern Germany, or a Hamburg hospital offers an earlier admission date. Plan rehabilitation as well: after a joint replacement or spine surgery it usually takes place in a separate facility, and it is best arranged before the trip.

Comparing Hamburg with other cities makes sense when many university hospitals treat the disease. University medicine with the same range of specialties exists elsewhere too, for example Charité in Berlin and LMU Klinikum in Munich. A request can go to hospitals in two cities at once, and their treatment plans, dates and cost estimates can then be compared. For the capital, see the overview of hospitals in Berlin.

Frequently asked questions

Which hospital in Hamburg is the best?

There is no single best hospital in Hamburg: it depends on the diagnosis. Magazine rankings take a large share of their score from surveys of doctors about reputation and merge criteria that have little to do with each other into one number. So choose the department for your specific condition, as in the diagnosis guide above. How such lists are built is explained on the page about hospital rankings in Germany.

What is a stay in a Hamburg hospital like?

A stay in a Hamburg hospital works as in other German hospitals. The standard room is shared with other patients; in most partner hospitals a single room is offered as an extra paid service (Wahlleistung). Each hospital sets its own visiting hours. On discharge, the patient receives a doctor’s letter in German with the diagnosis and recommendations, and AlenMed arranges its translation.

Which hospitals in Hamburg does AlenMed work with?

AlenMed works with eight hospitals in Hamburg: UKE Hamburg, Asklepios Clinic St. Georg, Albertinen Hospital, Altona Children’s Hospital, Helios ENDO-Clinic Hamburg, Israelite Hospital Hamburg, Marienkrankenhaus Hamburg and the Asklepios Hospitals network. The table above shows each one’s focus, and the cards below open their pages.

How AlenMed Arranges Treatment at a Hamburg Hospital

AlenMed prepares the documents, handles the correspondence with the hospital and supports the patient in Hamburg. Medical reports and images are translated into German and sent to the chosen department; the hospital replies with a treatment proposal and a cost estimate, and only then does the patient decide whether to travel.

Once the decision is made, AlenMed prepares the visa invitation, helps with the arrival at Hamburg Airport and with accommodation near the hospital for the patient and a companion, and a medical interpreter attends the appointments. The company office is in Munich, while 86 partner hospitals in 38 cities work all over Germany, so an option outside Hamburg can be found if needed.

This material is for reference only and is not an offer. The treatment plan is decided by the doctor at a face-to-face consultation, and the final cost by the hospital’s estimate.