The medical on-call service in the southwest has been restricted for almost a year now. Now people probably have to prepare for further closures.
red/dpa
October 11, 2024 – 4:02 p.m
People who urgently need a doctor outside of their family doctor’s opening hours may have to accept longer travel times in parts of Baden-Württemberg in the future. According to information from the German Press Agency, the Baden-Württemberg Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVBW) wants to further reduce the number of emergency practices in the southwest. This means there are 17 additional locations. The KVBW had already permanently closed eight practices over the course of the year. Südwestrundfunk (SWR) first reported on the plans.
The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians initially does not want to comment
The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians initially did not want to comment on the planned closures. The plans will be presented soon, said a spokesman. He referred to a press conference scheduled for October 21st. No concrete information will be given beforehand. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health said they were in contact with the KVBW.
Because of a court ruling, the KVBW announced in October last year that it would no longer use pool doctors in emergency practices and would like to redesign the medical on-call service. Pool doctors are doctors who are not licensed by health insurance companies, including doctors who work in hospitals, who are about to become specialists or who are already retired. According to the KVBW, they voluntarily took on around 40 percent of the services in the emergency practices. Arguing that their loss could not be compensated for, the KVBW initially significantly restricted the range of emergency practices available.
