Statutory health‑insured patients faced longer waits for specialist appointments in 2024 than they did a few years earlier, according to answers from the Federal Ministry of Health to a parliamentary question posed by the Left party. The “Rheinische Post” reports on the ministry’s response in its Wednesday issue.
A survey of insured people-which the government cites-shows that the average waiting time for a specialist appointment in 2024 was 42 days, up from 33 days in 2019. These figures refer to statutory health‑insurance (GKV) members who had waited at least one day for a specialist appointment.
At the same time, the GKV’s out‑of‑budget pay for “open consultations” has risen sharply. In 2023, extra‑budgetary payments for such services reached roughly €814 million, compared with €547 million in 2022 and about €291 million in 2020.
Under the new rules, certain doctors must offer a minimum of five hours per week of open consultation without a prior appointment. They receive additional funds from an extrabudgetary pool, a measure intended to improve access for GKV patients.
“The regulations for better care and faster appointments are a bureaucratic nightmare” said Julia‑Christina Stange, spokesperson for ambulatory care in the Left caucus. “They cost statutory insured people more money while delivering poorer service”. She added that, rather than taking decisive action to monitor how care is actually evolving, the government “closely keeps its eyes closed”.