Doctors protest against Lauterbach project leads to restrictions in up to 700 practices

More than 1,200 Hamburg doctors and employees of practices protested on Wednesday against the savings plans of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). At least 600 to 700 practices have therefore closed or have restricted their operations, said the chairman of the representative assembly of the Hamburg Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVH), Dirk Heinrich, during the protest and training event on Wednesday. There are around 3,000 medical practices in Hamburg. Resident doctors and psychotherapists also protested in other federal states such as Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. The North Medical Association assumed that hundreds of practices in Schleswig-Holstein would take part.

The panel doctors and contract psychotherapists are opposed to the fact that their fees for new patients should only be paid at a discount of around 20 percent in the future. With the entry into force of the Appointment Service and Supply Act in 2019, the practices expanded their consultation hours and the range of appointments and invested in additional services, said the Hamburg radiologist and head of the protest campaign, Andreas Bollkämper. In return, the fees for new patients were paid without deductions. If this regulation is now removed, it will inevitably lead to a worse offer for the patients.

New patients are people who have not visited a practice for more than two years. If you are referred to a specialist, you are also a new patient there.

John Afful, CEO of KV Hamburg, joined the protest: "It is unspeakable that the Federal Minister of Health is reacting to an income problem in statutory health insurance with benefit cuts for patients. Rather, he should strive for solid financing of the care of an aging society. The new patient rule was a real step in the right direction - its end weakens outpatient care rather than strengthens it," he said.