Two-tier care? Severely ill patient should wait three years for a diagnostic medical appointment

Three years to a cash-patient to wait for an ultrasound examination at a specialist
While private patients do not have to wait more than a few days for specialist appointments, cash-desk patients often have the disadvantage. Often they have to wait weeks or even months for a doctor's appointment. Completely out of control, it is now running in some regions of Germany. So a 64-year-old retiree from Meissen should wait for a full 3 years for an ultrasound date. And that, although Sigmar Hausmann has massive health problems.

Out of despair turned to the media
"That may not be true," thought Sigmar Hausmann, when he learned that in three years he would first get an appointment for ultrasound. First, the Saxon newspaper had drawn attention to the unusual case. Because the person concerned had turned in his deep desperation to the media, so that they draw attention to this impossibility. For previously Hausmann had been rejected by several medical specialists. Even though he suffers from massive health problems.

Cash patients have to wait much longer for a specialist appointment. Picture: Picture-Factory - fotolia

The retiree has been suffering from hypertension and type II diabetes for two years. Despite medication, blood pressure could not be lowered sustainably. Therefore, his family doctor referred him to a specialist, so that he performs an ultrasound of the neck and leg vessels. But the patient was unable to arrange a timely appointment. No specialist was able to make an ultrasound. Despite intensive search Hausmann flashed again and again.

But finally, after weeks of searching, he was able to find a specialist who even surprisingly practiced around the corner and had the necessary knowledge. On November 11, the investigation should take place. "At first I thought great - are only two months," said Hausmann in the Saxon newspaper. When he saw the year then on the slip, he initially believed in an oversight. There was "2019". "That can not be". But it was not an oversight. In fact, the patient should only get an appointment.

Gerda Freiental of Consumer Protection is outraged. "As a private patient, Mr. Hausmann would have an appointment within a week, if not in one or two days. It's increasingly turning into a two-class medicine, "criticizes the expert. "I can not wait for such an important date for three years," complains Hausmann. "Maybe I'll be dead by then." That's exactly what he said to the doctor as a counter-argument. But then they simply said: "Then that's just how it is".

Freiental advises to turn to health insurance instead. Some funds have gone to call even in the practices to help the insured. That often succeeds, because the doctors shy away from the trouble with the coffers. "Or you go to a clinic to have the outpatient examination there." That's what the person concerned did. The University Hospital of Dresden has made an effort to give an appointment quickly. And lo and behold, in the coming week, the ultrasound examination should already take place. Certainly, the involvement of the press has done the rest. (Sb)