General practitioners restrict office hours in protest

Created: 2022-09-27Updated: 2022-09-27 12:23 p.m

Stethoscopes hang in the treatment room of a doctor's office.

© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Symbolbild

General practitioners in Brandenburg will start a nationwide protest in the coming week and limit their office hours.

The doctors in private practice complain about the increasingly difficult conditions for patient care and increasing operating and personnel costs.

Politicians and health insurance companies would have to take countermeasures, the Brandenburg Association of General Practitioners demanded on Tuesday.

Potsdam – From Tuesday (October 4th) to Friday, practices will limit office hours to a minimum and do “work to rule”, as it was said.

The protest is intended to show what happens if savings continue to be made on outpatient care and the lights gradually go out in the doctor's offices.

The Association of General Practitioners demanded that the 1,300 practices should be compensated for inflation and energy costs in a manner comparable to the Brandenburg hospitals.

Some regions of Brandenburg also complain about a shortage of general practitioners.

"We are already experiencing that people can no longer find a family doctor," said Karin Harre, chair of the association.

General practices in Brandenburg are already treating more patients than in other federal states.

At the same time, there is an ever-diminishing financial situation.

In Berlin, doctors had closed their practices weeks ago in protest.

dpa