Acute dentist shortage in the countryside

Dentists want to work less often in the countryside

28/10/2014

The Free State of Bavaria is the offspring of freelance dentists. The number of practicing dentists would be "slow but steady". Stefan Böhm, Deputy Chairman of the Kassenzahnärztliche Vereinigung Bayerns (KZVB), in front of the press in Munich. In the case of the employed doctors, on the other hand, there has been an increase of 150 percent in the past few years to a total of 1572.

Although the degree of coverage according to a survey of the requirements planning of the KZVB at state level is more than one hundred percent, there would be deficits, especially in rural areas, as the KZVB announced at a press conference. For example, 700 patients come to a dentist in Munich, compared to 1400 in rural areas. Moreover, according to a survey, older dental practitioners would find no successors for their practices. Thus, in the rural regions of Bavaria, further supply bottlenecks in dentistry are threatening in the near future.

"If that happens, between 400 and 500 of the approximately 7100 dental practices in Bavaria will close in the next five years," explained Böhm. The causes are therefore similar to those in human medicine, but there are also "hard-hitting economic reasons," said Böhm. According to the fact that 50 per cent of the turnover of private patients depends on their sales, dentists suffer greatly from lower purchasing power in the countryside. The patients there would not be able to afford higher-quality dentures.

In addition, the per capita benefits of health insurance vary greatly regionally. In areas with a high AOK share, it would hardly be possible for dentists to decide to take over a practice, which is why the full-coverage dental care is endangered by the behavior of the AOK, according to Böhm. „Dental services have been underfunded at the AOK Bayern for years. Therefore, it comes again and again to fee reductions at the Bavarian contract dentists.“ And Böhm continues at a press conference on Wednesday in Munich: „This planning uncertainty does not help to increase the readiness to settle in regions with many AOK patients.“ The AOK accuses him: „The AOK Bavaria entrenched itself behind the social code. But sufferers of a thinning out of the supply landscape would be mainly patients in need of care and immobile, who can not drive to the next county seat to the dentist.“

Böhm therefore demands from the AOK Bayern that part of its budget surplus be made available for the complete financing of contract dental services and thus to maintain supplies in all parts of Bavaria: „The preservation of local dental care in the federal state of Bavaria is a challenge for society as a whole, to which the AOK Bayern also has to make its contribution“, so Dr. Stefan Böhm. (Jp)