Strong deprivation of plant medicine

Patients regret deprivation of plant medicine

23/05/2011

„Why is my health insurance not paying any herbal medicines?“ - Peter Friemelt, head of the health shop and the Independent Patient Counseling Center in Munich, is frequently confronted with this question. Phytopharmaceuticals are still as popular with his advice-seeking clients today as they were before the legal clear-cut seven years ago. "In the non-user survey of the Independent Patient Counseling Germany, the request for information about complementary medicine was even more often called than the information on general medical issues," reported the patient adviser in the press club Munich.

According to Peter Friemelt, the discussions in the counseling center reveal a number of reservations to the predominant medical profession: He is often helpful, especially in the case of severe health problems, but he is too technically and machine-oriented. The therapy is often associated with serious unwanted side effects. The medicine is very expensive and too financially focused.

„Patients today have a strong interest in effective, low-side-effect, most damage-free, healing-oriented and affordable treatments. These are consistent with a human, the patient-physician relationship in the focus of medicine“, Peter Friemelt summarized the expectations repeatedly expressed in his advice center.

Unfortunately, the reality is different: Natural medicine is often offered to patients only as a health service at their own expense. The financial burden is now immense: „Every year, patients in Germany spend around five billion euros on naturopathic treatments“, the patient adviser calculated. The most important wishes of insured persons to their health insurance and the legislature are therefore:

- Natural remedies as a cash benefit - that's what three quarters of the patients wish for.
- Natural medications should be comprehensibly approved and controlled.
- In the co-operation between Complementary and conventional medicine should also more „Teamwork“ occur.

In addition to treatment suggestions, many of their physicians also wish practical advice on how they can contribute to their recovery through their own activity. (Pm)

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