With the cabinet decision on the reform of emergency care, the next major health policy project starts the parliamentary process. The AOK community welcomes the third attempt of the federal government in principle, but sees a considerable need for improvement. The planned regulations would not effectively relieve the emergency rooms of hospitals and could lead to new bureaucracy.

The Chairwoman of the Board of the AOK Federal Association, Dr. Carola Reimann, positively emphasized that the draft provides for the nationwide establishment of integrated emergency centers (INZ) at selected hospitals, the anchoring of the rescue service in SGB V and the networking of control centers 112 and 116117 to form a uniform health control system. These points have been demanded by the AOK for years.

However, the AOK criticises several central points: Hospital locations without INZ could continue to offer outpatient emergency care. In addition, the referral of patients to regular statutory health care after the initial assessment is too non-binding. A uniform, standardised initial assessment tool for control centres and INZ is missing, as is a clear interface regulation to the planned primary care.

The planned “readily available outreach service” by panel doctors is also classified as problematic. It creates a competing offer to the existing practices and leads to unnecessary duplicate structures. The AOK advocates leaving the concrete design of emergency acute care to the partners of the federal umbrella agreements.

In addition, the AOK considers the savings of a good 1.2 billion euros per year expected by the minister to be significantly too high, while the investment costs of around 140 million euros per year are underestimated. Overall, there is a danger that the law will create additional bureaucracy without achieving real control of patient flows and substantial relief.

Editor: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR

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