The federal government has agreed on a reform of emergency medical care. According to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Wednesday edition), the draft bill from Federal Health Minister Nina Warkens (CDU), slated for adoption by the cabinet this Wednesday, includes provisions such as a standardized initial assessment via phone or video, and enhanced cooperation between ambulance and medical on-call services under the numbers 112 and 116117.
The reform also aims to improve cooperation between both inpatient and outpatient care providers. To achieve this, the plan calls for the widespread establishment of new “Integrated Emergency Centers”. These centers will combine the emergency rooms of hospitals, the out-of-hours practices run by associations of statutory health insurance doctors, and a shared initial assessment desk. Furthermore, emergency services, which fall under the jurisdiction of the federal states and municipalities, will receive funding even when they are not transporting patients to hospitals.
Warkens’ emergency reform is projected to save between one and two billion euros annually. The newspaper reports that the governing parties have reached a consensus on this reform. Notably, Warkens’ predecessors, Jens Spahn (CDU) and Karl Lauterbach (SPD), had previously failed with similar reform concepts.