Health - Patient advocates: bottlenecks in on-call service
The German Patient Protection Foundation has complained about bottlenecks in the on-call medical service and called on Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and his counterparts in the federal states to take action.
At night and at weekends, the on-call service is almost impossible to reach, CEO Eugen Brysch told the German Press Agency. "As a result, the situation for sick people at home, especially in rural areas, is getting worse and worse. The nationwide overloading of rescue services and emergency rooms in hospitals is becoming apparent," he added.
The background to this is a ruling by the Federal Social Court in Kassel in October. It had ruled that a dentist who had taken over emergency services as a so-called pool doctor in an emergency service center provided by the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists could not be paid like a self-employed person, but must also be covered by social insurance. There are now restrictions on on-call services in various federal states, such as the opening hours of on-call practices, because cooperation with pool doctors is being discontinued.
Depending on the federal state, up to half of the on-call doctors are affected, said Brysch. Lauterbach and the health ministers of the federal states must act immediately. "It's important to take the supervision of the Kassenärztliche Vereinigungen seriously for the benefit of the sick. The statutory mandate of the statutory health insurance physicians must be urgently restored." Registered panel doctors are obliged to take part in the on-call service.
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Source: www.stern.de
