In Germany, more and more medical practices are closing due to aging and start-ups are becoming less attractive. This could mean that nationwide health care is no longer guaranteed – especially given the rampant mass migration, even if it is not discussed. An emergency meeting of panel doctors is being held today, in which a list of demands is to be prepared. According to Andreas Gassen, head of statutory health insurance, if Health Minister Lauterbach does not respond to this, there is a risk of “practice collapse”.
If a successor cannot be found, about ten percent of medical practices will close in the next two to three years due to old age, warned Andreas Gassen (61), president of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Practitioners. , This will have consequences for those with statutory health insurance “Waiting for months and miles to see a doctor”, Warned Gassen to “build”. In truth, this picture is already emerging – everyone in Germany who needs a timely appointment with a specialist knows this.
Gassen accused Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (60, SPD) of not enough funding for medical practices and that growing bureaucracy was straining doctors. This would mean that new practices would become unattractive and existing practices would cease to exist. “This not only affects rural areas, but many practice closures are also expected in large cities, which will substantially restrict supply closer to home,” warned Gassen. Because from this it concludes: “The nationwide supply is therefore particularly at stake.”
Today about 800 doctors and psychiatrists meet for a crisis meeting. A list of Lauterbach’s demands is to be drawn up. For the medical profession, it is clear that there is a risk of “practice collapse” if the health minister does not take the necessary reform steps.
In particular, Lauterbach seeks to “make the practice attractive again with adequate funding”, according to the association’s president. “Unfortunately they haven’t done that yet, there is no inflation compensation And the medical profession has been controlled by bureaucracy and immature digital applications like e-prescription.
LauterBack doesn’t work
So far, Lauterbach has shown “a lot of promise”, but “significant reform steps are still awaited” between general and specialist practices and psychiatrists. If the Ministry of Health does not implement the goals agreed in the coalition agreement, Lauterbach will remain a “declaration minister” for doctors, Gassen explains. As is well known, this “declaration minister” sees his priorities in the horrors of the corona and the heat: clearly there was never a time for sensible health policy. Lauterbach’s only gift to the medical profession was probably the need for corona vaccinations, from which physicians who did not take their oath so precisely could earn a fortune (and generate new patients with serious health harm). But you can safely ignore the obligation to report vaccination side effects…
The health ministry dismisses the medical profession’s allegations as “beyond understanding”. It also stresses that statutory health insurance spending on medical care has risen by 44 percent to 46.1 billion euros over the past ten years and that the criticized e-prescription works well. Well, if the Ministry of Health says so!
As is well known, the conditions being warned about have long been a reality. Even now, specialists in particular are not accepting new patients and waiting months for an appointment is part of the norm. If you are allowed to come, you will be dispatched within five minutes with a prescription – Big Pharma should fix it. Finding a new general practitioner can also be very difficult. All this is not surprising, since the infrastructure is not designed for the millions of “new citizens” who are easy to handle in everyday practice due to language barriers alone. The reasons given – age-related closures and very few new medical practices – add to the difficulty.
