Rules for patient relocation required

The Medical Association demands legal rules for patient transfers

04/27/2014

The cost of moving patients from one clinic to another should no longer be paid by the hospital itself in the future. The Medical Association of Saxony-Anhalt calls for legal rules.

At present, the laying clinic has to pay for the transport
For a regulation of the so-called interhospital transfer in the rescue service law, the medical association of Saxony-Anhalt has spoken out. This is a transfer journey of patients between hospitals. Chamber President Simone Heinemann-Meerz said on Saturday on the sidelines of the spring meeting of the Chamber in Dessau-Roßlau to the news agency dpa: „Currently, a hospital that wants to move a patient by intensive care wagon in a higher-value clinic, pay for the transport, including the necessary accompaniment by a doctor himself.“

Smaller hospitals are reaching the limit of their financial capacity
Especially smaller hospitals would quickly reach the limits of their financial capacity. However, if a necessary transfer is omitted for this reason, the patient would not be served with it. „The Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for the Rescue Service Act, and the Ministry of Social Affairs know the problem, but they are pushing each other's questions“, Heinemann-Meerz. The meeting also discussed supply shortages in vaccines and other medicines. As the President of the Chamber said, medicines for cancer patients, certain antibiotics and hormone patches are also affected and are not available even though they are indispensable medicines. (Ad)

Picture: Picture: Günter Havlena