For Liz Hebestreit, going to the doctor is always an adventure. Of course, not in a positive sense. It is one with hurdles that push the 61-year-old to her limits. Hebestreit lives in Dachau, sits in a wheelchair and says: “It’s really chaotic here for me.” Although she is an active wheelchair user, meaning that she can get from A to B unaccompanied, lifting dispute at medical practices in the Dachau district is almost always dependent on outside help. Because: “The supermarket is more accessible here than any practice.”
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that medical facilities should be free of structural and technical obstacles for people with disabilities. But the first barrier, says Hebestreit, is usually the front door of the practices. Often it cannot be opened electronically. The 61-year-old has to wait until someone opens the door for her. Then there are other hurdles: Missing elevators, narrow door frames or thresholds on the floor that she cannot overcome with her wheelchair. “It’s just degrading,” said the 61-year-old.
“Then wheelchair users take the elevator and are still standing in front of the stairs”
If you tell Hartmut Baumgärtner about these experiences on the phone, he is by no means surprised. He is the disability officer for the district and the city of Dachau and paints a gloomy picture: only about a third of the medical practices in the district, he estimates, are at least partially barrier-free. This is in line with the figures in the Federal Medical Register: Just over a third of the practice locations throughout Germany have at least one barrier-free feature, as announced by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians last year. But in order to make it easier for people with disabilities of all kinds to go to the doctor, many obstacles have to be taken into account, explains Baumgärtner. Not only are narrow and non-electric doors or stairs annoying. Dark floors and a lack of lighting make access difficult for people with visual impairments, who are mostly dependent on contrasts. The bell also becomes a barrier if it is not accessible for wheelchair users, for example. “And often the view is simply missing,” says Baumgärtner. Because he mainly works in the city of Dachau, he can think of many local examples. There is a facility where the elevator ends on the mezzanine. “Then wheelchair users take the elevator and are still standing in front of the stairs,” complains Baumgärtner.
The disability officers of the municipalities provide information for the individual rural districts. From Altomünster and Bergkirchen, for example, it is said that most practices can be reached at least at ground level, by elevator or ramp. Katja Zupfer, the Vistula disability officer, says: “The will to be barrier-free is more likely when people have walking disabilities.” In the case of visual impairments, however, this is not yet the case. And in Karlsfeld, too, reports Anita Neuhaus, there is still a lack of awareness of other barriers away from stairs. The health center on Münchner Strasse is largely barrier-free, but the bus stop in front of the facility is not.
Liz Hebestreit has already learned that many doctors do not think beyond stairs as hurdles. When she picks up the phone to ask about the accessibility of practices, the person on the other end is usually optimistic. “And then it’s almost always the same game,” says the 61-year-old: On site, it turns out that the way in and through the practice is full of obstacles. Often she has no choice but to pick up a stick, with which a lifting dispute can take a few more steps. It is not harmless, she says: “In uncharted territory, I am always afraid of buckling.” For Hebestreit it is incomprehensible that they are still regularly confronted with these challenges – after all, the problems have long been known. So why are barrier-free medical practices still a rarity in the district?
“That is discriminatory, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it”
According to Baumgärtner, the answer is a puzzle of different problems. Many architects, for example, do not think about accessibility. The result: There are still buildings being built that are not completely barrier-free. If this becomes apparent after a while, the motivation for changes is seldom there: “In retrospect, nobody wants to invest any more.” In many construction projects, he points out possible barriers right from the start. However, this is only mandatory for construction sites in the public sector, explains Baumgärtner. For doctors who settle in private homes, for example, accessibility is only a matter of voluntariness. You could contact Baumgärtner, but you don’t have to, says the disability officer. So it happens that even newly opened practices are not necessarily barrier-free. This is also the case in Petershausen, where an ophthalmologist recently settled on the upper floor of a house without a lift. “That is discriminatory, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it,” reports Baumgärtner.
In the Dachau district in particular, there is another problem: not all municipalities have appointed a disability officer who takes care of issues on site. In Markt Indersdorf and Hilgertshausen-Tandern there is no contact person for people with disabilities. According to Baumgärtner, on-site help is particularly important in order to be aware of grievances: “I don’t know every little street myself, and I don’t know all of the medical practices anyway.” That is why, in addition to the officer responsible for the district disability, there is always a need for people with local knowledge to take care of people’s concerns. In Markt Indersdorf they know about the necessity of a disability officer, assures managing director Klaus Mayershofer. So far, however, nobody has been found who would have wanted to take on the honorary position. “We’ll be addressing this again in the near future,” said Mayershofer.
For Baumgärtner it doesn’t go fast enough. He would like to create a list that provides information about the accessibility of medical practices, shops and other publicly accessible facilities. This project has already been approved by the city council, and implementation is now going on. A first ray of hope for Liz Hebestreit and other people with disabilities in the district. Liz Hebestreit says: “We need to know where the stumbling blocks are.”
Operators of medical practices, shops and other facilities can contact Hartmut Baumgärtner by email to have accessibility checked. [email protected]