Strike family doctors protest

Family doctors strike and protest against the "Dismantling of the house doctor model"

(29.08.2010) Family doctors and general practitioners all over Bavaria have stopped work for two days in order to draw the attention of the patients to the political disassembly of the GP model and to „show that GPs in rural areas are worth preserving“, so Dr. Alexander Zaune opposite the „Augsburger Allgemeine“. Criticism followed immediately from the Kassenärztlichen associations: the doctors would neglect the duty to the patients with their protest and carry the dispute on their backs.

However, from the doctors' point of view, these allegations are made in the air because the strike is organized among the responsible service groups in such a way that every patient can be cared for. Special emergency services have been set up, but patients may have to wait a little longer, Dr. Alexander Zaune the procedure of family doctors and general practitioners. He hopes for a broad support in the population, as a large part of the patients „wishes to receive a medical examiner“... The general practitioners are particularly annoyed because of the massive promotion of group medicine and the entry of corporations into the health care system, because in their view the supply close to the patient is crowded out. Moreover, because the financial planning security is no longer given, especially the family doctors are threatened in their existence. Finding a successor for a transferable practice is hardly possible here, so that primary care will continue to decline, according to the doctors' point of view. The pressure on the remaining family doctors, grows with each age-related closure of a practice, so that young doctors do not consider entry because of the enormous pressure on performance. Experts estimate that the number of primary care physicians in some regions will halve over the next ten years.

In particular, the demand of the FDP to limit the special remuneration of the family doctor contracts in future contracts, the family doctors a thorn in the eye. This is lobbying policy for capital-oriented, large-scale clinics that would hinder freelance GPs as guardians of patient records, Dr. Jürgen Arnhardt opposite the „Augsburger Allgemeine“. As a result, not only mass patient handling without personal contacts is a problem, but there is a risk that the corporations use the data selection in the selection of patients operate. Most of the patients were sympathetic to the strike, especially as they did not feel negatively affected by the good preparation in their treatment. (Fp)