The German Society for General Practice and Family Medicine (DEGAM) has published a new position paper in which it refutes the thesis that there are not enough family doctors for a primary care system led by family doctors in Germany.

In it, DEGAM argues that such a system can be implemented with the existing human resources, provided that three central prerequisites are met: reduction of unnecessary workloads through leaner bureaucracy, consistent focus of doctors’ working hours on high-quality care (high value care), and clear transfer of defined tasks to other health professions.

The position paper gives concrete examples of current inefficient activities that tie up a lot of time but have little or no demonstrable benefit for patients (low value care). These include, among other things, excessive consultations solely for certificates of incapacity for work in the case of simple infections, quarterly re-examinations without medical necessity and controversial prevention services.

DEGAM also emphasises the potential of teamwork in GP practices. A lot is already done in a team, and with the new academic non-medical health professions, more forces are available. However, this requires suitable legal and administrative framework conditions. The society calls for financial incentives to be created through remuneration in order to significantly strengthen the delegation of activities to non-medical professionals.

Another focus is the consistent reduction of bureaucracy. In the opinion of DEGAM, cumbersome forms, inefficient interfaces between sectors and insufficient digitization tie up valuable time that could instead be used for core medical tasks.

DEGAM points out that a primary care system has been associated with better quality of care, fewer hospital admissions and lower costs internationally for years. In Germany, there is already a successful model with family doctor-centered care (HZV), which includes around 10 million registered patients in several federal states. Currently, the introduction of a nationwide primary care system is also gaining political support.

The position paper is entitled “Enough family doctors? Yes, in a primary care system led by family doctors!” and is available on the DEGAM website.

Editor: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR

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