The plans of the upcoming black-red coalition to introduce a primary care system are met with criticism from the Patient Protection Foundation. “Plans to control patients are already facing rejection from the public” said Eugen Brysch, a member of the foundation’s board, to the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers (Wednesday editions). Two-thirds of Germans do not believe that the primary care system will bring better patient care, timely specialist appointments and billions of cost savings. “Moreover, every general practitioner’s office would have to accommodate an additional 2,000 patients and 2,000 patient visits. However, there are already primary care practices that refuse new patients” Brysch said. Therefore, it is feared that such overlapping structures would harm patients more than help them. In the so-called primary care system, patients must first visit a general practitioner before seeing a specialist. The upcoming federal government has agreed in the coalition agreement to introduce the system, with exceptions for ophthalmologist and gynecologist visits. Support for the initiative comes from the German Association of General Practitioners and General Practioners. “A primary care system, like the one that has long been standard in many European countries, is the only reasonable way” said the association’s president Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth to the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers. It brings better quality at the expense of fewer resources. The “house doctor-centered care” in which around ten million insured persons participate nationwide, has already proven itself and can serve as a basis for a nationwide system. “We are facing the challenge of having to provide care for more and more elderly patients with increasingly limited resources” said Buhlinger-Göpfarth. More structure, a stronger integration of medical personnel and better digital solutions are necessary. According to Buhlinger-Göpfarth, the quality of care can be significantly improved through a primary care system: “Through close and coordinated care, for example, fewer medications that do not agree with each other are prescribed, unnecessary double examinations are avoided, hospital admissions are reduced, etc.
Patient Protection Foundation Slams Future Primary Care System Plans
