Press release from 08/02/2022
“If care structures are underfunded, it is life-threatening,” was a key statement from the specialist in internal medicine and nephrology, Dr. medical Wolfgang Driver in exchange with the local CDU member of parliament and health expert Erwin Rddel at the Linz site of the Kidney and Hypertension Center Middle Rhine.
Linz. The NHZM belongs to the Association of German Kidney Centers, which, with over 450 owner-managed nephrological centers, provides 46 percent of all dialysis facilities for patients with kidney disease in Germany. They provide patients with comprehensive care before and after a kidney transplant and, in numerous cases, prevent the loss of function of the kidneys in the medium term through secondary prevention.
The association DN had explicitly contacted the health politician to point out the life-sustaining work for the patients and the special challenges of the dialysis centers, which always have to function to ensure life and well-being.
Nine million Germans affected
You have to know that around nine million Germans are currently suffering from chronic kidney disease, of which 95,000 people are dependent on life-sustaining renal replacement therapy. More than 9,100 people are currently on the waiting list for a donor organ, of which over 7,000 are currently waiting for a kidney transplant.
According to forecasts by the Federal Statistical Office, the population group aged 65 and over will increase from 18.8 to 20.4 million in Germany over the next five years. This means that the age group that requires nephrological diagnostics, therapy, prevention and, if necessary, renal replacement therapy is increasing rapidly. nephrologist dr. Driver announced that the outpatient care in the owner-managed nephrological centers in Germany is exemplary in an international comparison: It is carried out at a high level across the board and is subject to quality assurance procedures.
Dialysis patients are usually dialyzed three times a week for four hours each time and thus spend a large part of their lifetime in the dialysis center. For the NHZM, this means 20,000 dialyses per year for 160 patients from the Neuwied district and neighboring districts.
In order to be able to guarantee this, good staffing and adequate financing of personnel and material costs are essential. The shortage of skilled workers and the salary competition with other hospitals are just two of the reasons, according to the nephrologist, who noted that the situation has not changed since 2013 and that all infrastructure costs, including personnel costs, are negative. We have a bad lobby, concluded the specialist. In Berlin I will work consistently to ensure that this vital supply is adequately funded, Rddel replied.
Ban on temporary work in healthcare?
When asked by the local health politician whether a ban on temporary work in the health sector could ease the situation, the doctor said: Temporary workers are twice as expensive for us. Since we need specially trained nursing staff, temporary work would only be a stopgap to fill gaps.
It must always be remembered that nothing can be scaled back in the field of nephrology and that there is no emergency operation. In addition, the nephrology department at the Franziskus Hospital in Linz offers acute therapy. When we fall, a good part of the inpatient treatment also falls, stated Dr. Wolfgang Driver. The interlocutors agreed that there was an urgent need for a necessary and overdue reassessment, both in terms of personnel and finances.
All methods of renal replacement therapy including hemodialysis, in which the blood is cleaned outside the body -extracorporeally- and peritoneal dialysis as a manual and machine-assisted method are available in Linz and Neuwied for the treatment of acute chronic kidney failure, confirmed Erwin Rddel.
(press release)
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