Since April 19th, the trade fair town of Riem has finally had a pediatric and adolescent medical practice at Werner-Eckert-Straße 10 – and pediatrician Mathias Wendeborn has already had enough to do. Two treatment rooms, two waiting rooms, an ultrasound room – the bright and friendly rooms, which are also home to many stuffed animals, were officially opened on Thursday.
It took many years before it was possible to establish a practice in the district with the most children in Munich. Only the collaboration between the health department, the Munich Clinic, the Lichtblick Foundation and Startstark-GmbH made it possible to end the chronic undersupply in the Munich trade fair city with the complex but common model: pediatrician Wendeborn brings his contractual headquarters to the wholly owned subsidiary Medicenter the Munich Clinic. He is no longer self-employed but employed. The Medicenter, an outpatient care center, is now his employer.
A “milestone for the district”
The commercial director of the Munich Clinic, Tim Guderjahn, and Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) also spoke of a “significant milestone for the district” and a “thank you” appointment. Because everyone involved was able to finally provide pediatric care in the district where most children under the age of three lived. It always annoyed him that a new district was created with the trade fair city, but no pediatrician could be located there
However, Reiter didn’t say anything good about the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVB), with whom discussions in recent years had been “less happy”. In fact, the KVB, which carries out the medical needs planning, repeatedly emphasizes that the Munich planning region is “sufficiently supplied” in the pediatric medical sector. According to KVB, the coverage level is even 109 percent. But these average considerations, which have been mentioned again and again in discussions, are “totally antiquated and not future-oriented,” says Mayor Reiter. In his opinion, it is high time for reforms at the KVB.
“Don’t leave a mess”: This is a practical rule. There is no sign of chaos in the new rooms. Everything is neatly tidy.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
Almost empty vaccination certificates, incomplete preventive examinations, hardly any regular doctor visits. If families needed pediatrician help, they immediately went to the emergency room of a hospital or to the on-call practice. According to Norbert Blesch from the Startstark social institution, that was the picture that emerged in the trade fair city in 2017 when the medical care situation was examined. This practice has now been in place for six years. That’s why it’s a “goosebumps moment” for him, says Blesch. Startstark and the Lichtblick association support the model financially.
Quietly and without big words, one person in particular is particularly happy on the inauguration day: Mathias Wendeborn. The 64-year-old enjoys walking through “his” brand new practice rooms and taking a look at the treatment rooms where he and his team of three have been examining children and encouraging parents since April. That’s exactly what’s most important to him: making parents strong, as he says, especially mothers. In times of the Internet, there is often great uncertainty. In particular, many children who lived with their families in the nearby refugee shelters come to him. The word has already gotten around that there is now a practice. So there is already enough to do. “But,” says Wendeborn, “there is more.”
He has always found this practice model good and therefore had no problem giving up his seat. And he complains about the health system, which does not take one thing into account with its flat-rate billing in pediatric medicine: the contribution. But that is precisely what is so important for children. Mathias Wendeborn, who previously had a practice in Gern for many years, is far from thinking about quitting. “I’ll work here as long as I can.” Says it and sits down on a tiny little children’s chair.