Emergency care in danger: Calw and the surrounding area are threatened with practice closure!

Emergency care in danger: Calw and the surrounding area are threatened with practice closure!

In the Calw district, things are looking bleak for emergency care in the region. After the opening hours of local emergency practices were reduced a year ago, there could now be a risk of complete closure. This development is related to a ruling by the Federal Social Court, which clarified the social insurance obligation for so-called pool doctors, such as retired doctors.

The Baden-Württemberg Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVBW) reacted to the verdict with drastic measures. Eight of a total of 115 emergency practices in the country will be closed, and many more practices will experience partial closures. Emergency care in Calw could also be among the practices affected, which is causing great concern.

Significant impact on the region

According to reports, the KV is planning to close a further 17 emergency practices, including the one in Calw. This not only affects the city of Calw, but also surrounding regions such as Herrenberg and Neuenbürg. These closures result from the redefinition of the requirements for on-call medical services; The remaining emergency practices must be accessible to 95 percent of the population within 30 minutes.

Concerns about emergency room overload are growing. In a joint statement, district administrators Roland Bernhard and Helmut Riegger emphasize that these planned changes represent a serious deterioration for the population. “Emergency care is a central public service and should not simply be passed on to the clinics,” says Bernhard, who also serves as chairman of the supervisory board of the Southwest Clinic Association.

Criticism of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians

For Riegger, it is crucial that outpatient and inpatient care structures are better coordinated. In a rural area like Calw, it is essential that several emergency locations remain in place to ensure adequate care. His concerns have so far not been adequately addressed.

In addition, the managing director of the clinic network, Alexander Schmidtke, also expresses his concerns about the planned reform. This could lead to an increase of up to 160,000 emergencies per year in the hospital network's emergency departments. So far, the clinics have had to treat 60 percent of these cases on an outpatient basis, although the financial situation of outpatient care is considered to be massively underfunded.

The closure of these practices not only has an impact on patients, who rely on quick and comprehensive emergency care, but also on the financial aspects of the clinic's operations. The clinic group expects losses of around ten million euros annually. These numbers illustrate the untenable situation in which emergency care in the Calw district finds itself.

Last year, Bernhard, Riegger and Schmidtke appealed to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to take the situation seriously. However, the call went unheeded, which underlines the urgency of the issue.

There are currently five emergency practices in the Böblingen and Calw districts, which are located in the region's clinics. However, the joker that emergency practices represent in a simplified understanding should not be confused with the emergency services. A spokesman for the KV pointed out that the term “emergency practice” was misleading, because “real emergencies” should always call the emergency services. Rather, the practices serve as on-call medical services outside of regular consultation hours. If these practices are missing, there is a risk that patients will visit regular emergency rooms unnecessarily.

The current situation in Calw raises essential questions about the future of emergency care. Nevertheless, it remains unclear which solutions those responsible are considering to ensure basic medical care in the region. These developments are not only locally important, but can also have far-reaching consequences for the entire emergency care system in Germany. For more detailed information about the controversial closure plans and their background, you can click on comprehensive reporting on www.schwarzwaelder-bote.de access.