Dortmund – The plans of the future coalition government to introduce a primary care physician system are causing criticism from the Patient Protection Foundation. "The plans to manage patients are already meeting with public rejection," said board member Eugen Brysch to the newspapers of the Funke Media Group (Wednesday editions). Two-thirds of Germans do not believe that the primary care physician system will bring better patient care, timely specialist appointments, and billions in cost savings. "In addition, each general practitioner's office would have to care for an additional 2,000 patients. Yet there are already primary care physician practices that turn away new patients," said Brysch. Therefore, there is a fear that such duplicate structures would do more harm than good for those affected. In the so-called primary care physician system, patients must generally first visit a general practitioner's office before they can see a specialist. The likely future federal government has agreed in the coalition agreement to introduce the system – with exceptions for visits to the ophthalmologist and gynecologist. The initiative has come from the German Association of General Practitioners (DGPs). "A primary care system, as has long been the standard in many European countries, is the only sensible way forward," federal chairwoman Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth told the newspapers of the Funke media group. It will deliver better quality with less waste of resources. Family doctor-centered care (HZV), in which around ten million insured people nationwide participate, has already proven its worth and could serve as the basis for a nationwide system. "We face the challenge of having to care for more and more elderly patients with ever fewer resources in the future," said Buhlinger-Göpfarth. More structure, greater involvement of medical assistants, and better digital solutions are needed. According to Buhlinger-Göpfarth, the quality of care could be significantly improved through a primary care system: "Through close and coordinated care, for example, fewer medications are prescribed that are not compatible with each other, unnecessary duplicate examinations are avoided, hospital admissions are reduced, etc."
