Half of the missing days cause long-term illnesses

The current BKK health report "Long-term illnesses" shows that almost half of all days off among the employed BKK members is accounted for by long-term illnesses lasting more than six weeks. Ten years ago, this share was still five percentage points lower. If nothing fundamentally changes in the care of these patients, it is to be expected that with ongoing demographic change, long-term and usually also chronic diseases will continue to increase.
Franz Knieps, CEO of the BKK umbrella organization notes with regard to the data: "The German health care system is frozen in its structures. It is not geared to the course of a patient's disease, which would be sorely needed in long-term patients, but still operates in times of global information networking with demarcation and foreclosure: So between outpatient and inpatient treatment, between doctors and other health professionals and between private and statutory health insurance. "Masterplan" Chronic and long-term illnesses "bitterly needed Knieps therefore demands that action be taken finally.

Half of all sick leave are long-term sick leave. Picture: M. Schuppich - fotolia

Similar to the national cancer plan, a master plan for protracted and chronic suffering has now been developed: "The needs and requirements of long-term patients must be the top priority. To be successful, all actors should participate in the plan and its implementation - without insisting on traditional hierarchies and privileges. I am convinced that the young generation of physicians, the well-trained young nurses and other future-oriented actors in the health care sector critically and critically scrutinize structures that have become rigid and persistent. "What are" long-term illnesses "? The entire spectrum of diseases has shifted: it is not the acute cases, such as injuries or infections, that put a strain on patients and the healthcare system.

Rather, long-lasting, often chronic diseases dominate: hypertension, diabetes, cancer, mental illness and musculoskeletal disorders. Long-term cases: individual and societal consequences The consequences for employees, who are sick for a long time failing and the social security systems describes Prof. Holger Pfaff: "The uncertainty of the individual whether he can pursue his profession in spite of or with his illness in perspective is a great burden for the The patient himself, his family and his working environment. "Although the patient is covered by the statutory health insurance because he / she pays sick pay (after the employer has paid the salary for a maximum of six weeks). The maximum sick pay period: 78 weeks. If a long-term patient does not recover in this time, he is usually retired.

"Increasing sick pay, more and more retired employees - especially dramatic in the mentally ill - are not an unalterable fate. Neither for the sick nor the German social systems. The key is to reduce the frequency and severity of long-term illnesses through prevention. Effective solutions include the reduction of long-term illnesses and the often associated multimorbidity through consistent, effective and, above all, cross-sectoral care management. We simply can not afford the notorious so-called interface problem in the German healthcare system, "says Pfaff. BKK Report Service In addition to the absences, detailed analyzes of outpatient care and drug prescriptions can be found in the 2015 Report. New are key figures for inpatient care. All data published in the BKK Health Report 2015 are also available to interested readers on our homepage. The BKK Report 2015 reflects the illness of a total of 9.1 million BKK insured and is representative of the entire working world. (Sb)