AMany doctors in Hesse want to keep their practices closed on Wednesday. On the one hand, the doctors want to protest against the planned cancellation of the new patient regulation and, on the other hand, draw attention to the poor conditions for outpatient care. The action was triggered by a protest summit by medical professional associations in Hesse in mid-October, says Jan Henniger, a resident surgeon in Frankfurt. “You could feel that something was boiling over.”
For years, the federal government has been trying in various ways to strengthen outpatient care by resident doctors. This included, for example, that practices should offer five additional consultation hours per week. In return, the new patient regulation created a financial incentive for doctors not only to give appointments to regular customers. Since then, doctors have been earning more on average from new patients. This is intended to compensate for the fact that a patient whose history has to be asked by a doctor first takes far more time than a long-term patient. But this bonus is to be canceled without replacement from January for reasons of savings.
“Are no longer recognized by politicians”
“This could lead to patients having difficulties finding a new doctor from next year,” Henniger fears. Years ago, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) advocated new patient regulations so that sick people who could not find a doctor in a reasonable amount of time did not resort to treatment in clinics. Now the pressure on the outpatient clinics of the hospitals will increase again. “We wanted to prevent everyone from running to the clinics,” says Henniger. “We as resident doctors are no longer recognized by politicians.”
In addition to this change in the law, the doctor lists rising inflation, higher salaries for employees, rents and energy costs. And the health insurance companies have announced that they will fix the monthly budget for doctors for years, with no prospect of adjustment. If doctors prescribe more than this budget, they can only bill their services pro rata – a loss-making business. The coalition agreement of the traffic light parties SPD, FDP and Greens says: “We are canceling the budgeting of medical fees in the general practitioner area.”
“Now the measures seem to point in the other direction again,” says Henniger. “None of us are impoverished, but we don’t know where all this is going to lead,” complains the doctor. Doctors in private practice, who are indispensable for patient care, especially in the area, could get more and more into trouble with this billing model.
It is not known how many doctors will close their practices on Wednesday. In any case, the Hessen Medical Association advises patients to find out in advance whether practices are taking part in the protest or whether they are offering their regular consultation hours. In the event of an acute illness, “other emergency care facilities are available” – the outpatient clinics of hospitals are then probably the most popular.
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