Emergency care in Brandenburg: Reform urgently required!

Emergency care in Brandenburg: Reform urgently required!

Oder-Spree, Deutschland - Emergency care and the emergency services in Germany face profound reforms. Brandenburg's Minister of Health Britta Müller articulated the urgent concern at the current state parliament session to bring the emergency reform forward quickly. The challenges cannot be overlooked: increasing number of operations, an acute shortage of skilled workers and an outdated financing logic are increasingly complicated to the situation in healthcare. In particular, the statutory assumption of costs by the health insurance companies, which currently only applies to transport to the hospital, no longer meets the needs of the present. Services that are provided on site are considered “false trips” according to the current regulation and are not reimbursed what exerts enormous pressure on the emergency services. According to [Cityreport.pnr24-online.de] (https://cityreport.pnr24-online.de/gesundminister-mueller-notfall supply-und-Rettungsdienst-muessenreformer-werden/), there is therefore an urgent need for action.

The minister calls for a clear federal law regulation in the Social Code V (SGB V), which enables the reimbursement of emergency services even without hospital transport. The idea is to finance transport costs in outpatient facilities and to increasingly focus on the concept of “outpatient before inpatient”. In this context, it is also important to improve the cooperation models between medical practices, clinics and emergency services in order to create an efficient supply landscape. In the future, transport to outpatient institutions should be recognized as a regular performance of the emergency services, which could be an important step in the fight against the "false trips".

nationwide standardization as a goal

A central goal of the reform is the nationwide standardization of the emergency services. This is currently regulated in the hands of the countries, municipalities and health insurance companies, which leads to different standards and responsibilities. According to aok.de, the emergency services will be determined as a separate performance area in SGB V. "The current approach is simply no longer up to date," you learn from the ranks of those affected. The new committee at the Federal Ministry of Health should help ensure the quality in emergency rescue and to guarantee a uniform procedure.

The voice of those affected

Christof Constantin Chwojka, Managing Director of the Björn-Steiger Foundation, has also criticized the alarming state of the emergency services and calls for fundamental renewal. This necessity is also underlined by the numbers: 229 rescue control centers in Germany work according to different requirements and standards. A state that is not only confusing, but above all dangerous for the affected patients.