Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, Vice President of the Vienna Medical Association (ÄKW) and practicing general practitioner, warns of a “dramatic” disease situation surrounding Corona. The lack of free antigen tests would be the root of the problem. This would trigger a chain of problems.
VIENNA. Actually, the press conference of the Vienna Medical Association (ÄKW) on Tuesday about the staffing of health insurance practices. Even for doctors, this is often a very dry topic. Towards the end, however, it suddenly becomes emotional.
The trigger is the questions from journalists to Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied on the current infection situation surrounding Corona and those who are ill with it. The vice president is the chairwoman of the medical profession and works in the medical practice herself. MeinBezirk recently reported that there is an increase in Corona cases and sickness rates:
Increase in corona cases and sick leave recorded in Vienna
This picture is also evident in the doctor’s offices. According to her, the situation is “dramatic, it is a tragedy in my office,” says the doctor from her practice. “I think this wave will overwhelm us this winter,” she puts it drastically.
Long road to medication
In addition to corona, the flu and whooping cough are also currently putting a strain on health. However, the main problem is not the infection rate per se, but rather the lack of free antigen tests. These, and not the more expensive PCR variants, would actually be sufficient to improve the situation.
Since April 1, family doctors have been able to test their patients free of charge. This was made possible by a regulation from the Ministry of Health, which expired at the time. Since then, there has been no agreement. Anyone who needs a test has to pay for it themselves. This is a huge problem for high-risk patients if they do not have a large income themselves: “I cannot expect a minimum pensioner to pay 15 euros, 20 euros or more for tests.”
Many people would simply have to forego the test when choosing whether to do it or not. This triggers a whole chain of problems. “For high-risk patients with infections, there is Paxlovid, which costs 1,300 to 1,400 euros. In order to be able to prescribe this, a positive test is required. So if there is no test, there is no medication,” says Kamaleyan-Schmied from practice.
Agreement with “but”
Kamaleyan-Schmied is supported by the chairman of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK). Negotiations are currently underway with the ÄKW to purchase antigen tests free of charge for patients, he said. Andreas Huss. They are close to completion and should be reached in the next few days. But he also makes it clear: “In the end, the costs will be borne by the contributors.”
In any case, it makes sense to carry out checks in doctor’s offices, but not mass testing as we have seen in the past. However, Kamaleyan-Schmied also makes it clear that the negotiations are purely about antigen tests for high-risk patients. “The otherwise healthy 18-year-old who doesn’t know whether he should go to school the next day will still have to pay for it himself,” she explains, referring to the resulting chains of infection.
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