Trouble because of the new regulation: dead pants during testing

Created: 07/01/2022, 21:38

By: Nadja Hoffmann

Criticizes the madness of bureaucracy: Sarah Schmid.

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New regulation, new problems: The quick tests are no longer generally free of charge, and the operators of the stations are at their wits end.

The first locations are already closed.

Corona has Munich firmly under control: more than 2,000 new cases every day, the incidence has already climbed to 626.1.

And now, of all times, the rapid tests as an important tool in the fight against the pandemic are practically gone!

Why?

Because the federal government is making rapid testing ad absurdum with its new regulation.

The first stations in the city have already closed, more and more operators are on the verge of despair - in the face of bureaucracy and billing madness.

Both are deterrents: since the regulation came into force on Thursday, hardly anyone has gone to the test.

Test stations are closing or about to close

"It's all very frustrating," says Alexander Spierer, who has previously operated the "Test Now!" rapid test center - with stations in the Hofbräukeller on Wiener Platz, in Pacha and in the Freiheitshalle.

All three locations have been closed since July 1st.

Spierer has drawn conclusions: In principle, demand has recently fallen massively.

However, he calls the new procedure "unreasonable" - for employees and customers.

The citizen tests are no longer free for everyone, but only for risk groups and exceptional cases.

If you want to go to a concert or meet people over 60, you pay a contribution of three euros.

All others the full price, which is between 10 and 20 euros.

Spierer doesn't see why people should be questioned before a test.

"And then there is the documentation requirement".

For example, if you want to visit a retirement home, you need confirmation from the facility for a free test - in advance!

"How does that work?",

Bureaucracy "pure harassment"

asks Sarah Schmid in view of the bureaucracy.

She has been operating a station in Grafrath (district of Fürstenfeldbruck) since January, where an average of 30 to 40 people per day actually came to the smear.

On Thursday there were only five customers left.

"It doesn't pay off," says the 27-year-old, who has to pay for the container, the stand fee, the wages for three employees and the material.

Now she had to buy a cash register with which all new billing processes would be registered.

In her eyes, the effort involved is one thing: "pure harassment!"

The physician Sayed Wahid Abass, who operates five stations under the title "Test and Go", sees it the same way.

For example the trailer on Rotkreuzplatz.

With the new regulation, the jobs of his 20 employees are in jeopardy.

Because: In the end, the number of customers is collapsing anyway.

Now it looks very bleak.

Abass has calculated: If the business generated is negative for three days, he will also draw the conclusion: "Then I'll close!" The new procedure is neither well thought out nor practicable, but just "ridiculous".

Massive criticism from the associations

For Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the rapid tests have so far been “valuable”, but too expensive.

However, his new regulation is now facing massive criticism.

"If such a complex reorganization is decided and announced one day before it takes effect, then chaos is foreseeable for everyone involved," says the Hartmannbund medical association.

The Association of General Practitioners speaks of a "bureaucracy monster".

And the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians is calling for the citizen tests to be stopped.

Its boss Andreas Gassen called the quick test to the Bild newspaper “a completely pointless event to test healthy people with questionable quality without cause”.

The panel doctors are campaigning for PCR tests for patients with symptoms.