Dhe Health Minister's planned emergency reform may come late, but it is definitely the right thing to do. The Social Democrat Karl Lauterbach wants to ensure that patients in emergencies receive better care, and in this case better means: in the right place in the healthcare system. Its division into so-called sectors has always made it difficult for sick people to navigate their way through the responsibilities. Many patients with minor illnesses go to the emergency departments of hospitals, which are actually equipped for life-threatening cases, and not to the family doctor or the emergency service of the established statutory health insurance physicians.
Lauterbach wants to change that and introduce so-called integrated emergency centers in hospitals. Patients should register at a counter whose staff will direct them to the appropriate care route: the milder cases to the statutory health insurance doctors, the more serious cases to the emergency room. Lauterbach also wants to reduce the dualism of the sectors in the telephone control centers by networking the respective emergency numbers with one another. The emergency service can be reached on 112, the emergency service of statutory health insurance doctors on 116 117. If the federal and state governments agree – which is not a foregone conclusion – callers should be transferred from one system to the other.
#Lauterbach39s #emergency #reform #progress
