Wrong focus on corona vaccination? Germany's dangerous precautionary backlog

The corona pandemic has made doctors inventive. They handed out prescriptions through the open window like at a fast food store or used beer tents in front of the practice as additional waiting rooms. After all, the doctors not only had to fight their patients’ illnesses – but also their fear of corona infection. However, they could not convince everyone. In the course of the pandemic, Germans canceled millions of appointments or did not make them at all.

The result is a backlog in early detection. More than one in four Germans (28 percent) had fewer check-ups during the pandemic than in previous years or than originally planned.

This is the result of a survey by the French online health company Doctolib and the opinion research institute YouGov, which is exclusively available to WELT.

Above all, the fear of contracting the corona virus was the main reason for the decline. Health politicians consider this finding to be worrying.

After all, regular check-ups can often prevent serious illnesses from progressing. They are now calling for an offensive to catch up.

According to the study, almost all areas were affected. Dental prophylaxis and health check-ups are particularly common, but so are skin cancer screenings and mammography and prostate or genital examinations. People with statutory health insurance are entitled to early detection examinations.

In addition, the corona pandemic has also caused chaos in scheduling. For around every second German (47 percent), a check-up appointment was canceled or postponed during the pandemic - or even no appointment was made despite acute symptoms.

For the representative study, 2137 adults were interviewed between August 12 and 15 of this year. March 18, 2020 is considered the beginning of the corona pandemic.

"The corona pandemic has led to a considerable backlog of precautionary measures," says Nikolay Kolev, Germany head of Doctolib, which specializes in online appointment management. Making up the dates could be difficult. According to the survey, almost two thirds of Germans (64 percent) want to do this in the next two years.

"With 44 million Germans planning a check-up in the next 24 months, the already overstretched health system will experience an additional burden," warns Kolev.

This is a disadvantage for those patients who were not able to optimally perceive their health care during the pandemic.

According to Doctolib, more than every third patient is currently waiting between three and eight weeks for a check-up appointment. "It is now all the more urgent to close the pension gap quickly and to give patients quick and easy access to specialists," says Kolev.

Health politicians also see a big problem in the traffic jam. "The backlog of check-ups is extremely worrying," says Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus, health policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group. In the hot phase of the pandemic, some gave the impression that you shouldn’t go to the doctor at all. "That was wrong," says Aschenberg-Dugnus.

An undetected cancer can have just as serious consequences as a corona infection. "We now have to actively promote that preventive medical check-ups be taken more frequently and more regularly," says the politician.

Tino Sorge, spokesman for health policy for the Union faction, calls for a quick catch-up. From his point of view, however, the opposite is currently happening: "In the household, the traffic light has set the red pencil in prevention," complains Sorge. Prevention must return to pre-pandemic levels. The CDU politician is therefore calling for a real precautionary offensive for this winter. "Instead of repeatedly promoting the corona vaccination, the Federal Ministry of Health should now launch a new campaign to prevent other diseases," said Sorge.

But it seems more than questionable whether the money is available for it. Only recently the house of Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) passed a financial stabilization law for statutory health insurance. The motto: Increase income, limit expenses. The health insurance companies are already missing around 17 billion euros.

At the same time, the Federal Ministry of Health launched a new campaign for corona prevention in autumn. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, the aim is to draw attention to the new vaccines and to give good reasons to update your own protection now.

The costs for the development and implementation of the nationwide campaign are said to amount to around 32.7 million euros.

The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) contradicts the thesis of a precautionary backlog: "Regardless of the numerous restrictions in everyday medical care, the contract doctors have continued to be strongly committed to early detection even under pandemic conditions," it says when asked.

Over the past year, their data for some examinations even showed slight increases compared to 2019, including early detection colonoscopy or mammography screening. In general, one cannot speak of a sharp decline in preventive medical check-ups.

Nevertheless, the KBV emphasizes that the studies could be used more extensively. “Men in particular tend to be reluctant to take precautions,” they say.

Susanne Johna, Chair of the Board of the Marburger Bund Medical Association, also emphasizes: "Unfortunately, prevention and health care still do not have the status in the population that they should."

But the study also shows one thing: the majority of citizens feel well informed. Almost two out of three patients (62 percent) know which check-ups they need.

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