According to the Association of General Practitioners, the high number of infections in acute respiratory diseases is pushing practices to their limits. “We are currently experiencing exactly what we warned about in the summer”said association chairman Markus Beier to the Editorial Network Germany (RND). “The family doctor’s practices are once again running on the edge – and that, even though the flu season hasn’t even started yet“In many places, patients are no longer getting appointments, waiting times are getting longer and longer, and there is hardly any time left for the treatment itself, says Beier. This is due to bad political decisions in recent years.
The head of the association again called for a crisis summit from Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to ensure primary care. Among other things, there needs to be a reduction in bureaucracy. “Otherwise more and more people will simply without a family doctor’s office stand there.”
Corona, colds and flu are clouding the pre-Christmas period in Germany. In the report from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) last week, it was extrapolated from around 7.9 million acute respiratory diseases (previous report: 7.1 million) nationwide, regardless of doctor’s visits.
After Corona in particular has dominated for a long time, the RKI recently called Beginning of the RSV wave (RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus infections).
Now flu detections are also increasing significantly. According to the RKI definition, the flu wave, caused by influenza viruses, has not yet begun.