/picture alliance, Bernd Weißbrod
Stuttgart – The closure plans had been known for a few days. The Baden-Württemberg Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVBW) has now officially confirmed that it wants to reduce the number of emergency practices in Baden-Württemberg.
18 locations are to be closed. The KVBW had already permanently closed eight practices over the course of the year. The closures are to be implemented gradually from April 2025. The KVBW cited the lack of staff among resident doctors as the reason for this. “We simply have a personnel problem,” said Karsten Braun, CEO of the KVBW.
If you want to maintain care responsibly in the country, you have to focus on standard care, i.e. on normal practices. “If we don’t adapt the on-call service, then we will drive standard care in the country to the wall. “That’s just the reality,” said Braun.
In the future, according to the KVBW, 95 percent of patients should reach an emergency practice within a 30-minute drive, and all others within a maximum of 45 minutes. It is also planned that there will only be locations in connection with a hospital with an emergency room.
To replace the locations that are being eliminated, the remaining practices are to be strengthened. If there is a need, more doctors should be on duty there at the same time. This means that a higher volume of patients can be managed and at the same time the quality is also improved.
There are many doctors who, because of their specialty, have little to do with certain diseases. “If an experienced colleague is also on site, this makes the service easier and improves care,” said Doris Reinhardt, the deputy KV boss.
The KVBW also sees telemedicine as an important component for care. We know that many cases can also be handled via telemedicine without having to go to the emergency room, says Reinhardt. The emergency service number 116117 is also important. In the future, the number will be the central control point to guide patients to the right care. In addition, the transport service should be strengthened – i.e. doctors who make house calls.
The medical on-call service can help if the family doctor is not open – for example if you have a severe cold, severe stomach pain or a small cut. The emergency practices provided bridging treatment until the family doctor or specialist opened again the next day, explained Reinhardt. Statistically speaking, each person uses the service approximately every five to six years.
There has been massive resistance to the plans of the statutory health insurance doctors for days. Mayors, district administrators, state ministers and opposition politicians had called on the state government to stop the plans. Several hundred people also protested against the closure plans in front of the KVBW building in Stuttgart. Banners read “Close emergency practice? Shame!” or “Emergency care for everyone – even in rural areas”.
The mayor of Backnang, Maximilian Friedrich (independent), criticized at the rally that his city had been promised that there would be a permanent emergency practice when the local hospital was closed. Now this promise is being broken with the closure of the emergency practice. “We must not and cannot put up with this,” he said. He called on Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) to exercise his testing options. “The KVBW shouldn’t be a state within a state.”
Lucha said it was right and forward-looking that the KVBW had presented a new location concept. “We have to be honest with the citizens and give them pure wine: in view of increasingly scarce human and financial resources, things cannot happen without changes,” said the Health Minister in a statement.
If you want to secure standard outpatient care, the on-call services need to be restructured. “We simply cannot ignore the demographic change, the upcoming wave of retirements in the medical profession and the increasing desire for part-time work among doctors as well as the increasing shortage of doctors.”
The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians no longer sees any need for changes to its location concept. This was decided and passed by the meeting of representatives, said Braun. However, adjustments can still be made to the staffing of the locations or the driving service.
However, the last word on the subject has not yet been spoken. On Wednesday, the state parliament’s social committee will also discuss the closure plans in a public meeting. Then KV deputy head Reinhardt also has to answer questions from the MPs. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de
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