Why do Germans visit the doctor so often?

Why do Germans visit the doctor so often? The average German has 18.1 doctor visits a year. On average, Austrians, Poles, French, Danes or Belgians seek medical advice about seven times a year. This means that, on average, Germans go to the doctor more than once a month. How does this happen?

According to the doctor's report 2010, a GP in Germany treats Barmer GEK on average about 45 patients per working day and has eight minutes per patient. The report shows in Germany twice as many patient contacts of the physicians as in the international comparison, an increase in the billed treatment cases and a further increasing number of doctor visits compared to previous years auf.Basis for the report of Barmer GEK are according to their own outpatient billing data of about 1.7 Millions insured. This is about 2 percent of Germans - which allows conclusions and representative projections on the situation of outpatient total care. The Barmer GEK Medical Report is published annually by the Hanoverian Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health System Research (ISEG).

The report, presented at a press conference in Berlin today, continues to call into question the effect of the practice fee, which has led to the funds now taking up 2 billion euros a year and pointing out that „the basically meaningful GP-centered care in the dead end is“.

The so-called practice fee of 10 euros per quarter for the first visit to a doctor was introduced in 2004. It should contribute to relieving the cash, as it was assumed, among other things, that visits to the doctor would be less for bagatelles. Furthermore, since then the visit of a specialist is not possible without prior consultation of a family doctor.

Dr. med. Thomas G. Grobe, Project Director of the medical report and research assistant at the Hannover ISEG, rightly asks the question whether more treatment would not reduce the number of visits: „For the individual patient contact apparently less and less time remains. Some doctor contact may be unnecessary by longer treatment times.“

The Barmer GEK comes to the conclusion that the health insurance funds, the GP associations and the Kassenärztliche associations should now tackle a common approach to better implement this information.

Not only in medical circles is speculated that the practice fee has caused a boomerang effect. Many insured could consider after paying the practice fee that they now have the 10 euros this quarter „fully exploit“ and want to complete as many doctor consultations as possible. (Thorsten Fischer, Naturopath Osteopathy, 19.1.2010)

Additional Information:

Website of the Hanoverian Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Systems Research