Alliance wants summit at the Chancellery and more say in…

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Presentation of the thesis work of the Alliance for Health: BÄK President Klaus Reinhardt, President of the Association of Medical Professions Hannelore König, Ute Repschläger, President of the Federal Association of Independent Physiotherapists and Christine Vogler, President of the German Nursing Council. / heather

Berlin – All professional groups in the health sector are calling for a joint action to draw attention to the current and future health care problems. The 40 associations of the Alliance for Health today invited Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to hold a health summit at the Chancellery. The demand document, presented in Berlin today, will now be forwarded to the Chancellery.

Associations include, among others Federal Medical Associationthe National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physiciansthe German Nursing Council as well as the Association of Medical Professionalsthe pharmaceuticalthe Federal Psychopath­therapist chamberthe Federal Dental Association as well as many of the medical professional associations, represent about four million employees.

The document calls for a fundamental reorientation of the health system and its political control. The main issues are tackling the shortage of skilled workers, sustainable financing of the health system and reform of care structures. However, to bring about fundamental political change, individual professional groups would need to be included in political discussions on legislation much earlier.

“The desired laws and changes are not reaching us in the health professions,” said Ute Repschläger, president of the Federal Association of Independent Physiotherapists. Therefore, self-management of professions must be strengthened, according to the health alliance document.

Overall, a change in policy goes beyond the areas of responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Health: “Many aspects also influence health in society in education policy, transport policy or environmental policy. Occupational safety is also an important factor in economic policy,” stressed the President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt. The alliance is now calling for a summit in the Chancellery, “since everything has to do with health when it comes to health.”

Reinhardt emphasized that this should not be understood as a criticism of the cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG). “The point here is that the horizon portrayed by BMG is larger. And that makes this summit of a different quality to summits of other industries.”

Reinhardt emphasized that we call for the initiation of a social discussion about the prospects for a long-lived society. Because in a few years you will be in a situation where there are 100 employees versus 50 pensioners.

However, from the alliance’s point of view, the changes are already clearly visible today: “We are already feeling the changes in society, but also in everyday care, perhaps more quickly than other professional groups,” emphasized Reinhardt and the President of the German Nursing Council, Cristina Vogler.

“Even in routine operations, the gap between the demands and the reality of healthcare is becoming ever wider,” Vogler warned. In his view, the system will not be able to cope with the next pandemic-like health crisis. BÄK President Reinhardt stressed that “people’s trust in our basic democratic order is also significantly influenced by their trust in a reliable healthcare system.”

In the future, healthcare professionals in particular will have to be better protected against overload, even in the current situation. “Working conditions must no longer lead specialists to reorient themselves professionally and consciously leave the healthcare system,” explained Repschläger.

She also advocated for good integration of foreign skilled workers and targeted promotion of young talent in the country. To maintain healthcare at the current level, the health literacy of the population must be significantly improved, the document further states.

To maintain healthcare, “adequate financing of the healthcare system is essential,” explained Hannelore König, President of the Association of Medical Professionals. “Health and healthcare are not cost factors, but rather form the basis for a socially and politically stable society in which it is worth living.”

Statutory health and nursing insurance should also be covered by sufficient federal funds, König demanded. In particular, the many non-insurance benefits in statutory health insurance would need to be better secured through tax financing. These include, for example, non-contributory family co-insurance, family-related benefits in kind, sickness benefits, exemptions from additional payments or preventive services.

According to the members of the alliance, “given the impending shortage of supply, it is no longer appropriate to budget for services”. Therefore, the aim should be to abolish budgets. Many professional groups are hopeful that the system will soon improve thanks to digitalisation.

“If we could communicate better with each other in the future via ePA or messaging services, then an incredible amount of resources could be saved,” said Vogler. The requirement document states that “digitization should be implemented as a priority, in a form that is suitable for delivery and easy to use.” In digital applications, all professions needed equal access.

The alliance has been working on the thesis document for a long time and has also discussed it intensively, as BÄK chairman Reinhardt reported. “In this first process, we deliberately discussed the topic only among ourselves as healthcare professionals and without the health insurers,” explained König from the Association of Medical Professionals.

The Alliance for Health was founded in 1999 in protest against the Federal Ministry of Health’s plans at the time to introduce a global budget. It has repeatedly entered the debate in recent years. © bee/aerzteblatt.de

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