Corona: Doctors wanted to control practice access using the 3G rule – Bavaria

It was an attempt to protect the patients in the waiting room, the practice team and, of course, themselves more effectively from Corona: Some doctors in the Free State wanted to follow the example of large hospitals and only allow those patients who had been vaccinated and recovered to enter their practice or are tested. Nationwide research by Bayerischer Rundfunk had shown that although it was a minority, there were no individual cases either. However, the reactions to the tightened access regulations were in places so violent that the doctors concerned are now withdrawing or defusing them. “Some of the hostility is very personal,” says an orthopedic practice in Friedberg, Swabia.

The notice at the entrance “Access and medical treatment only according to 3G regulation” has meanwhile been removed. A new laminated sheet was attached. “We are now asking our patients to comply with the 3G regulation on a voluntary basis,” one of the doctors said on Wednesday when asked. The shitstorm on the Internet – via e-mail or on forums – has taken on an extent “that not necessarily everyone likes,” it said. The practice itself offered to do a quick test.

Contract doctors have an obligation to treat

In view of the public outrage about the difficult access to some medical practices, the Ministry of Health in Munich has also clearly positioned itself. Doctors could theoretically take increased security measures for the premises. “Allowing patients to access the doctor’s office only according to the 3-G rule is basically not possible in doctor’s offices,” explained a spokesman. Patients should only be turned away in justified individual cases.

There were also clear words from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Bavaria (KVB): Contract doctors clearly have an obligation to treat statutory health insurance patients. For this reason alone it is questionable “whether an application of 3 G can be derived from house rules”. The situation is of course completely different with private doctors: With the exception of pain and emergencies, they are not obliged to treat patients.

A spokesman for the KVB attributes the fact that some doctors in Bavaria wanted to make visiting a practice safer using the 3-G rule, mainly because patients have only been wearing a surgical mask instead of an FFP2 mask when visiting a doctor since the beginning of September had to become. Many practices have reacted by setting up special consultation hours for those patients who are not vaccinated. “In case of doubt, they will also be treated by doctors in protective suits,” it said.

Personal protective equipment is possible

The Bavarian Ministry of Health also regards measures like these as justified. There are certainly situations “in which the special protection of the own health of the doctors, their practice staff or patients is in the foreground”. In such cases, for example, personal protective equipment or “additional consultation hours for unvaccinated and untested patients to ensure their care” are conceivable.

When the first cases became known in Bavaria in which doctors wanted to control access to the practice via the 3-G rule, the Greens in the state parliament reacted immediately. “Everyone is entitled to medical treatment – even those who are not vaccinated against Corona,” said Christina Haubrich, the health policy spokeswoman for the Green Group. On the other hand, it makes sense to create more security for high-risk patients who are also treated there by offering free tests in medical practices. The AfD gratefully took up the 3G issue. Such behavior, “should physicians actually dare to take this step,” is directed “against the ethical principles of their profession and the Hippocratic oath,” it said.

Some doctors in Bavaria, however, are not impressed by such pithy words. An ophthalmologist’s practice in the Pasing district of Munich, for example, still uses an answering machine to point out: “Only those who have been vaccinated, who have recovered and who have been tested have access to our practice.

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