Outpatient care | My, your... our appointments!

Open consultation hours were actually a good idea. With reportable appointment contingents, they could become rarer again. Photo: dpa/Lars Penning With the emergency reform law, stricter appointment reporting requirements for practicing doctors were passed in the middle of the month. From March onwards, they will no longer be allowed to simply report a few free appointments to the statutory health insurance doctor's service points, but rather it will be about mandatory quotas. This has reignited the discussion about how fair the appointment system has been so far. And even politicians, who are generally privately insured, currently find it appropriate to point out injustices here.

On the other hand, the federal government is not particularly willing to get involved in the debate about citizens' insurance for everyone, and certainly not for all incomes including rent, interest, etc. pp. The injustice doesn't seem that great to her.

Knowing this well, there are various medical officials behind whom there are many doctors who have integrated themselves into the divided insurance system in a secure manner. And this to the extent that the ideal general branch is talking about appointments that belong to him personally, i.e. to him, the doctor-businessman. And he doesn't give them out, at least not for every health insurance patient who comes along. Medical necessity, which is now considered a high criterion, is probably very flexible and not always provable for people in emergency situations. Unless he or she has the medical lawyer at hand.

Perhaps there is a very simple temporary solution: anyone who needs treatment should not be asked how and where they are insured when making an appointment. The idea came from CSU politician Klaus Holetschek, but he only meant the online portals. The crucial question would then continue to be asked in the doctor's office - and who wants to control that? Presumably in the future, doctor's appointments will also have to be socialized, seriously and across the board, for practices with 3,000 patient contacts or more per year.

Other media have corporations or billionaires behind them. We have the nd.Genossenschaft and readers like you. That makes us independent and that’s exactly how we want to remain. But it also means: without you the calculation won't work. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

You can donate directly here, one-time or regularly, so that nd stays.