Hospital.Help

Weimar – The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) Thuringia is calling for measures to strengthen outpatient care close to home.

“If the ideas of the Minister of Health and his expert commission are followed, outpatient treatments will be centralized at fewer and fewer locations, at the expense of the special closeness between patients and their doctors as we know it today,” explained the board of the KV Thuringia, Annette Rommel and Thomas Schröter.

In state-organized health systems such as those in England, the Netherlands and Denmark, it is clear what bottlenecks and waiting times this leads to for patients, they warned.

The KV board is therefore pushing for two packages of measures to secure outpatient care in the long term. Firstly, it must be about conserving resources – through effective patient management and less bureaucracy.

“Secondly, by de-budgeting outpatient care in order to ensure sustainable and needs-based medical care,” say Rommel and Schröter.

The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians is also committed to providing care close to home, including with the campaign “We are close to you”. With this campaign, the self-administration of contracted doctors and psychotherapists wants to underline their vital role for society.

The campaign is also present in Thuringia – with mobile posters on bicycle trailers in Erfurt and Weimar from May 24 to 29. © hil/aerzteblatt.de