Health
Alleys for emergency room fee under certain conditions
An emergency room in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. photo
© Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa
The head of the panel doctors says that not every patient in the emergency room actually has a medical emergency – and insists on the concept of solidarity.
The head of the panel doctors, Andreas Gassen, advocates a fee for patients who come to the emergency room in the future without an initial telephone assessment. “Anyone who continues to go directly to the emergency room without first calling the control center may have to pay an emergency fee, because that costs the solidarity community more money and ties up medical resources unnecessarily,” Gassen told the editorial network Germany (RND).
It is always argued that such fees are anti-social. “In my opinion, however, it is antisocial to use the emergency service inappropriately and thus endanger the lives of other people,” emphasized the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV). He added: “Anyone who can still go to an emergency room themselves is often not a real medical emergency.”
At the same time, Gassen welcomed the plans of Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to virtually connect the rescue service on 112 and the medical on-call service on 116117 in order to make an initial assessment and then guide the caller correctly.