Ministry makes it clear: No obligation to test parents when visiting a pediatrician!
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Updated November 25, 8:22 p.m.
Düsseldorf – Parents who accompany their offspring in pediatric and adolescent practices do not need one Corona-Testing.
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Parents who accompany their offspring in pediatric and adolescent practices do not need a Corona test certificate. (Symbol picture) © symbol picture: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Parents who accompany their offspring in pediatric and adolescent practices do not need a Corona test certificate. The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Health (MAGS) made this clear on Thursday after considerable confusion and protests from paediatricians. Accompanying persons of patients do not need to be tested for the coronavirus before entering a practice or when visiting a doctor, said a spokeswoman for the MAGS of the German Press Agency (dpa).
At the same time, following an application from North Rhine-Westphalia, all 16 state health ministers asked the federal legislature to clarify and correct the testing of practice staff. That comes from a unanimous decision of the Conference of Health Ministers (GMK) on Thursday. The background to the vortex is the Federal Infection Protection Act submitted by the SPD, Greens and FDP, which was passed last week.
Accordingly, “employers, employees and visitors” are only allowed to enter medical practices if they have been tested and can provide evidence of this. “In isolated cases, a general test obligation for persons accompanying patients, for example in pediatric practices, has already been derived from this,” said the MAGS in Düsseldorf.
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But: Accompanying persons such as parents, legal guardians or caregivers are treated people – i.e. patients – to be equated, explained the spokeswoman. And patients do not have to be tested in order to gain access to the practices – this was previously generally accepted as undisputed.
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New regulation according to MAGS “nonsensical”
Pediatricians were increasingly unsettled and the BVKJ asked for a quick correction. (Symbol picture) © BVKJ
The MAGS reacted by clarifying the outrage and uncertainty of paediatricians who had criticized compulsory testing for accompanying parents as completely impractical. Previously, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reported on the new explanations from the MAGS.
In the second point, the mandatory personal test, the paediatricians received clear support from the federal states. The professional association of paediatricians (BVKJ) in North Rhine-Westphalia protested on Wednesday against a new obligation, according to which the vaccinated staff must also be tested daily.
This new regulation in the amended Infection Protection Act is medically nonsensical, cannot be implemented in everyday life, and rapid tests are hardly available any more, said the BVKJ chairwoman of North Rhine-Westphalia, Christiane Thiele, among others. Many practices are threatened with closure.
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The BVKJ in North Rhine-Westphalia had requested a quick “legally secure, practical and cost-neutral correction”.
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Staff should also be exempted from daily testing
According to the ministry, testing twice a week is sufficient. NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (64, CDU) assured this on Thursday. © David Young / dpa
The GMK resolution now calls on the federal legislature to withdraw the “inappropriate” daily test requirement for recovered and vaccinated practice staff. “Daily testing of fully immunized employees leads to unreasonable burdens on the areas already burdened by the pandemic,” says the decision. Test capacities are also only available to a limited extent.
The legislator should immediately clarify and correct that two antigen rapid tests in their own use are sufficient for vaccinated or recovered practice personnel.
Daily testing of fully immunized patients “overshoots the mark,” affirmed NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (64, CDU) in a statement on Thursday. “Even with a view to the limited test material, it cannot be justified,” said the CDU politician. The authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia were informed by decree on Wednesday that they would apply their discretion in such a way that testing fully immunized employees twice a week would be sufficient, according to the ministry.
Thiele told the dpa on Thursday that the practices were now relieved. The law has to be changed in order to really solve the problem nationwide. “Half-baked laws, for which obviously no expert knowledge was consulted, may no longer be enacted like this.”
The dentists also called on the legislature to “immediately suspend and withdraw” the requirements for employee testing. The Westphalia-Lippe Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists spoke of an “unjustified and unrealistic” obligation to test.
The Westphalia-Lippe Dental Association warned of the “danger of having to shut down dental care if test materials can no longer be procured.”
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Cover photo: Symbolic image: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
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