Opportunity to take sick leave by phone ends
The possibility of telephone sick leave for mild cold symptoms without visiting the practice is coming to an end. The special regulation of the Federal Joint Committee of doctors, clinics and health insurance companies introduced in the Corona crisis only applies until this Friday (March 31).
Committee chairman Josef Hecken told the German Press Agency that sick leave by telephone had fulfilled its function during the pandemic – as an “easily implementable way of distinguishing between mild and severe cases of illness and avoiding full waiting rooms”.
In view of the current risk assessment by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), it is now being phased out. Hecken made it clear that you keep an eye on them and can activate them again very quickly if necessary.
General practitioners and consumer advocates are calling for the regulation to be retained. “To put it bluntly: it’s no longer possible without the phone sick note,” said the deputy head of the German Association of General Practitioners, Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth, the editorial network Germany (RND / Friday).
This applies in particular to the acute waves of infection, as there were last winter. “Anyone who now pulls the plug on sick leave by telephone endangers the supply and accepts that the family doctor’s practices will come under increasing pressure,” emphasized Buhlinger-Göpfarth.
Since the end of March 2020, it has been possible almost continuously to call in sick for mild respiratory problems. This should reduce unnecessary contacts and avoid corona infections. The Federal Joint Committee had extended the special regulation several times, most recently until March 31. The RKI downgraded the risk assessment for Germany from high to moderate in early February.
