Family doctors in Bavaria are preparing to vaccinate patients against corona in their practices.
For those over 80, this could start in just a few days.
Munich
- From April, general practitioners should also be able to offer Corona * vaccinations.
In many regions of Bavaria this could be possible even earlier.
The Munich doctor Dr.
Wolfgang Ritter, member of the board of the Bavarian General Practitioner Association, explains which requirements must be met for this.
How realistic is it that general practitioners will be vaccinated against corona from April 1st?
Ritter:
That is very realistic.
This is the nationwide solution in which there is a billing number for the vaccination * and the vaccine is delivered to the practices via the pharmacies.
But independent of this, there are already vaccination offers from general practitioners in some Bavarian regions.
The point is to vaccinate the risk group of over-80s as quickly as possible, but the vaccination centers and mobile teams are reaching their capacity limits.
It would go faster if every general practitioner vaccinated their over-80-year-old patients directly.
In the practice or at your home when you are bedridden.
Is that already happening?
Ritter:
We are still waiting for approval, but we assume that we can get started in Munich in two to three weeks.
Then we call all over-80s from our file and offer them the vaccination.
Even for people who are mobile, but who are on the move with walking aids, for example, it is easier than driving across town to a vaccination center.
In this way we can increase the willingness to vaccinate.
Many people trust their family doctor - this is a big factor.
Corona vaccinations at the family doctor: The organizational effort is enormous
How do you manage the great organizational effort for this?
Ritter:
The effort is really enormous at the moment.
The worst is the appointment bookings that we don't get through the Bavaria-wide portal.
Every practice must make the effort to call the patients in priority group 1 to offer them the vaccination *.
If they want, they get an appointment, which is entered in an Excel table and then reported to the vaccination center so that the right amount of vaccine is delivered to the practice on the right day - together with the necessary consumables.
If every practice had to order syringes or cannulas itself, this would trigger distribution battles again.
Can you offer all vaccines?
Ritter:
Now, for those over 80, we can offer Biontech and Moderna vaccines.
AstraZeneca is not approved for them.
The vaccination center provides us with the vaccines *, then they have to be vaccinated within five hours.
Many patients will probably ask for a specific vaccine ...
Ritter:
We just have to do a lot of educational work.
Three vaccines * are currently approved and all three are very good.
AstraZeneca too.
There have simply been some PR disasters with this vaccine that have created great uncertainty for some.
For those under 65, it is a very good vaccine with very good protection potential.
+
Dr.
Wolfgang Ritter from Munich
© private
Corona vaccination: Family doctors must help if there is three times the vaccine amount
Are you already receiving a lot of inquiries from people willing to vaccinate who have not yet received their turn?
Ritter:
Yes, of course.
That is also the reason why it was not possible to get vaccinated in the doctor's office until now.
We couldn't have managed to explain to everyone that it wasn't their turn yet.
But now more and more vaccines are coming.
According to the projections, we will soon have three times the amount of vaccine than we can currently vaccinate.
This means that the general practitioners have to help increase the vaccination capacity.
Will you have a lot more work to do when the prioritization groups are vaccinated and everyone wants other appointments?
Ritter:
Then it will be easier.
Then a patient asks for an appointment and gets it.
I am sure that by then there will be enough vaccine for everyone - and that we won't have to turn anyone away.
People can then choose whether they want to be vaccinated at the doctor or at the vaccination center.
All medical practices can do that on the side?
Ritter:
We have always vaccinated.
This is our daily business.
We are up to the onslaught.
But the documentation has to get simpler.
The vaccination currently takes one minute and the documentation five minutes.
This is still insane paperwork.
Everything has to be entered into a system manually.
We imagine that this is done via a QR code.
Politicians must now use the time to put pressure on software companies to make things easier.
The interview was conducted by Katrin Woitsch. * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network.
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