BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Patients with acute complaints are to be treated far less frequently in hospital emergency rooms in future. Instead, those seeking help on the phone or on site at the hospital should increasingly be sent to a nearby practice or receive direct telemedical care. This is the aim of a large-scale emergency reform, for which Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach presented key points in Berlin on Tuesday.

The SPD politician explained that 25 to 30 percent of cases from emergency outpatient clinics could also be treated in doctors' surgeries. Today, emergency outpatient clinics are often overcrowded - doctors' organizations have been complaining for years that many people with minor ailments also go there, especially at weekends.

New centers with affiliated practices

In future, the emergency departments are to be merged into new integrated emergency centers. Lauterbach announced that there would be one center per 400,000 inhabitants. Each of these centers will also have an outpatient emergency practice in the immediate vicinity. The assessment of where patients should be treated is to take place at a so-called joint counter.

Essentially, the reform aims to ensure that patients are treated where it is best and quickest, according to Lauterbach. "That doesn't always have to be the hospital," said the politician. "In many cases, emergency acute care makes much more sense." A visit to the GP practice the next day is often sufficient.

Linking 116 117 and 112

The appointment service centers of the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, which can be reached on 116 117, are to be expanded. They are to be networked with the 112 emergency call centers. In future, it will not matter which of the two numbers you dial. Patients will then receive an initial assessment of where they should go. If an emergency patient dials 116 117, for example, they should also be able to be sent an ambulance in this way.

Minor cases without visits to the doctor

Telemedicine is also to be expanded, as Lauterbach explained. If a doctor deems it unnecessary to visit a practice or clinic by telephone or video, it should also be possible to issue an electronic prescription or an electronic sick note. According to Lauterbach, the treatment case could then be closed without the patient having to leave the house.

Reform law to apply in 2025

The new emergency centers are also to be networked with the appointment service centers - according to Lauterbach, this should make it possible to be offered appointments for further treatment there directly. Overall, a "major reform" is planned with "incredible potential to save money and improve care at the same time". It should be launched by the federal cabinet in the first half of the year and apply from the beginning of 2025./bw/DP/mis