Panorama practices at the limit
Pediatricians are calling for the abolition of children’s sick leave
As of: 08:18 a.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Doctors criticize the sick notes as “unnecessary use of pediatric resources”
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Christian Charisius
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If their own child is sick, parents need a certificate for the employer. The President of the Pediatric Association criticizes that doctors often have to certify harmless illnesses that parents can manage themselves. Doctors’ practices are not “prosecution authorities.”
Pediatricians in Germany have called for an abolition of sick leave for children with minor illnesses. “Parents can manage harmless illnesses themselves,” said the president of the pediatricians’ association BVKJ, Michael Hubmann “Erztezeitung”. Hubmann argued that it would amount to an “unnecessary use of pediatric resources” if pediatricians had to certify a harmless illness.
“Above all, we simply cannot judge whether a parent has to stay at home to care for a child,” said the BVKJ President. “Absurdly, this is exactly what is required of us by law.” Doctors’ practices are extremely unsuitable as “prosecution authorities for employers’ associations,” Hubmann added.
Parents can take time off work for sick children up to the age of twelve. The fund then covers a large part of the loss of earnings and pays child sickness benefit – usually 90 percent of the lost net wages. However, parents need a medical certificate for this. Since December 18th, you can also apply for this sick note for care by telephone and without visiting the practice. Certificates of receipt of child sickness benefit for a maximum of five days are possible.
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The practices also created unnecessary work with certificates so that children with minor health problems could go back to daycare or school, said Hubmann. He gave the following example: “A child has a mosquito bite. The daycare center says: The child has a rash. So I get dad out of his editorial conference. He picks up his son and comes to my practice.” Such a scenario is “not a joke, it’s everyday life and a social harm.”
Last year, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced relief for parents when applying for child sickness benefit. Until now, parents have had to present a medical certificate on the child’s first day of illness, if possible. In the future, according to Lauterbach, a visit to the doctor will only be necessary from the fourth day of illness.