Patient control: General practitioners: New system of patient control feasible

The coalition’s plans for better patient control via a primary medicine system encounter a shared echo for doctors. The general practitioner association welcomes the project, but from the perspective of the health insurance doctors, it only makes sense for patients from an average age.

According to the will of the CDU, CSU and SPD, a “binding primary medicine system” by home and pediatricians should be introduced for a more targeted control and faster allocation of appointments, which may transfer patients to specialists- with the exception of ophthalmologists and gynecology. Other solutions are to be found for patients with a specific severe chronic disease.

Federal Minister of Health Nina Warken promoted the plans at the German Medical Day in Leipzig. The goal is the family practice as a “first point of view with an accelerated appointment transfer for further specialist treatment,” said the CDU politician.

Treasurer: from the age of 50 many with “some Zipperlein”

The chair of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, said the “picture” that the model made “about 50”. “There are relatively many with any Zipperlein in medical treatment.” The system could work “if it is older multimorbid patients, i.e. people who have different diseases, from different areas, where, on the one hand, an orderly hand in the sense of general practitioner practice is necessary to bring all findings together and where to be specifically transferred to specialist medical colleagues”.

General practitioners: “We do that”

The black and red coalition receives support from the general practitioner association. Their chairwoman Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth said the “picture” that the introduction of the model would mean two to five additional patients per day: “And I tell you as a family doctor, that’s a promise: We do that.” In general, patients are better cared for in a family doctor program.

Green expert: General practitioners must not be a “specialist car door”

The Green Health expert Janosch Dahmen supports the control concept, but at the same time warns a relief for general practitioners. “A mandatory primary doctor system can help – but only if it is done correctly,” Dahmen told dpa. The health system suffers from too many unnecessary visits to the doctor, long waiting times and uncoordinated processes.

Specifically, Dahmen called for the general practitioners “more time through reservations instead of a quarterly statement, more support from independent non -medical practice staff and a networked, digital appointment management – a system that does not make doctors and doctors.” Dahmen pointed out that many general practitioners are missing in rural areas. He warned: “Anyone who introduces a duty there without creating sustainable solutions risked real undercase.”

The board of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, pointed out that two thirds of people over 65 years of multimorbid were multimorbide, i.e. several chronic diseases. For good reasons, the government did not want to include them in the “first house doctor’s obligation”. Nevertheless, patients are likely to “flood” their family practices, fears Brysch. The government must counteract this with measures in over -provisioned areas and promotion of doctors in rural areas.