Published on 10 September 2024, 21:20 / ©APA/dpa
According to the Vienna Medical Association, the corona infection figures are a “disaster”.
According to the Vienna Medical Association, the corona infection figures are a “disaster”.
Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied is calling for free corona tests in practices, as many patients cannot afford the costs and therefore do not have access to medications such as Paxlovid.
by WHAT
2 minutes reading time(377 words)
Naghme Kamaleyan-SchmiedVice President and Chair of the General Practitioners in the Medical Association of Vienna, once again called for the possibility of free corona tests in doctors’ offices on Tuesday at a press conference. The situation is “catastrophic”; many of her patients have corona but cannot afford the cost of the test. This means that high-risk patients are denied access to effective medication.
Problems with prescribing Paxlovid
Doctors are not allowed to prescribe Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of the disease, the duration of the disease and the risk of long Covid, without a positive corona test, says Kamaleyan-Schmied. “I cannot expect a minimum pensioner to pay 15 or 20 euros to get a test so that she can get an effective drug against her corona infection. That is a tragedy.” 90 percent of her patients would not cover the costs of such a test, says the general practitioner, who runs a health insurance practice in Vienna-Floridsdorf.
Delay in reimbursement of costs by social insurance
Until April 1, the costs for testing at the doctor were covered by the federal government, but a solution via social insurance has been announced for some time. According to Andreas Hussthe chairman of the Conference of Social Insurance Institutions, they are now in final talks. “We hope that this will be done in the next few days,” he announced that costs would be covered at least for certain groups of patients.
Criticism of the delayed progress of the talks
Minister of Health John Rauch (Greens) criticized the fact that the social insurance had started the planned talks with the medical association far too late: “It is also more than annoying for us that even more than a year after the legal regulation was passed, there is still no agreement between the social insurance and the medical association,” the department head explained in a written statement.
Threat from rising infection rates
For Kamaleyan-Schmied, the Covid wastewater figures are “a disaster”, and then there are infections such as influenza or RSV – and there are no free tests in the practices for any of them. “This will overwhelm us and I am honestly afraid of the next few months.” Without free tests, doctors would have no tool to prescribe the medications for patients that shorten the course of their illness. (APA, September 10, 2024)
