As of: February 7, 2024, 1:29 p.m
By: Daniel Schinzig
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Medical assistants should stop work for a day on Thursday, February 8th.
What restrictions patients have to expect.
Hamm - strike wherever you look.
First there was a rail strike that lasted almost a week, then Verdi called for a warning strike at airports.
While the strike-related restrictions have so far mainly affected commuters and travelers, on Thursday, February 8th, patients in particular will be affected by the strike.
The Association of Medical Assistants (VMF) is calling on medical assistants and trainees at outpatient care facilities to go on a warning strike.
Around 300,000 employees are targeted.
What does this mean for patients in NRW?
Medical assistant strike on Thursday in North Rhine-Westphalia – what that means for patients
In fact, the fight for better working conditions and higher salaries for medical assistants will not go unnoticed by patients who seek treatment on February 8th.
“The work areas of medical assistants include not only registration and appointments, but also, for example, assistance with examinations, treatments and surgical procedures, carrying out hygiene measures and laboratory work, practice management, documenting and billing treatment processes and purchasing materials,” explains Heike Rösch, spokeswoman for the VMF, in an interview
with
wa.de.
“So if medical assistants go on strike, the effects will be felt.
We ask for your understanding."
However, patients do not have to fear that they will no longer receive treatment at all.
This ensures emergency care.
“In some practices, doctors will take on the tasks of medical assistants or work with a smaller team,” explains Rösch, referring to the situation on Thursday, February 8th.
The strike called by the Association of Medical Professionals is a first.
Such a measure has not occurred in the association's 60-year history.
“It is essential to act now so that more professionals do not leave the profession because of the low salaries combined with enormous stress and high levels of responsibility,” said the VMF spokeswoman, explaining the need for the strike call.
“It is essential to act now”: Why medical assistants are on strike on Thursday
“The entire development since the pandemic has led to the working conditions for professionals becoming increasingly worse,” explains Heike Rösch.
“In addition, the increased costs mean that the situation and salaries of medical assistants are becoming less and less attractive.”
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The VMF and the working group to regulate the working conditions of medical assistants (AAA) have been in collective bargaining since October 2023.
Employers offered a total salary increase for medical assistants of 5.5 percent.
In the eyes of the members of the VMF, an unsatisfactory offer.
Especially since lower salary groups in particular should benefit from the increase.
Higher qualified medical assistants who have been in the profession for a long time are said to suffer from this decision and in some cases only receive a 0.1 percent higher salary.
Collective bargaining will take place again on Thursday, the day of the strike.
If these lead to a result acceptable to the VMF, according to Heike Rösch, no further strikes are planned.
The day before (as of 12:30 p.m.) around 300 employees in North Rhine-Westphalia registered for the warning strike in North Rhine-Westphalia.
“However, experience shows that only a portion of them register and the situation is very dynamic at the moment,” the VMF spokeswoman explains the number.
There will also be a rally in Dortmund in connection with the strike.