Massive corona infections, millions of vaccinations, tens of thousands of long-covid patients: The Bavarian statutory health insurance doctors are missing financial compensation for the burdens caused by the corona pandemic. In addition, they have clearly criticized the recently resigned Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU). The inauguration of his successor Karl Lauterbach (SPD) connects the doctors in the Free State “with a hope that the problems that his predecessor left us to tackle differently in the future”, as the chairman of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Bavaria (KVB), Wolfgang Krombholz, on Tuesday in Munich said.
This includes, above all, a significant reduction in the bureaucracy in the practices, emphasized KVB board member Pedro Schmelz. Also, the ministry’s requirements should no longer be enforced with pressure and sanctions, as is the case with digitization. The “legislative impositions from Berlin” had already led to young doctors no longer wanting to take over practices, which resulted in gaps in outpatient care in some regions. According to Schmelz, parts of the Free State are already undersupplied with dermatologists, ear, nose and throat specialists and ophthalmologists – there is also a lack of neurologists and pediatricians. “Running your own practice is only one of many options for the young colleagues,” emphasized Schmelz. Currently, 61 working days were spent on bureaucratic processes per year and practice. “If the new government takes this courageously, it will create an effective settlement promotion program.”
In addition to financial compensation for the additional burdens caused by the pandemic, the new federal government urgently needs to turn other adjusting screws, emphasized KVB board member Claudia Ritter-Rupp. It has not yet been taken into account that there was an increase in the number of cases among twelve to 29-year-olds of up to 25 percent in the psychotherapeutic area in the first half of 2021. But while in Munich more than half of all practices could offer a long-term therapy place within three months, in Upper Franconia it was less than 20 percent.