Inequality among general practitioners in Hamburg: SOVD urgently demands changes!

Inequality among general practitioners in Hamburg: SOVD urgently demands changes!

Steilshoop, Deutschland - in Hamburg it is boiling when it comes to distributing your family doctor's practices. The Social Association of Germany (SOVD) raises its fingers and criticizes the unequal distribution that is worrying for both medical care and social justice. The situation in Steilshoop is particularly striking, where only two doctors provide around 20,000 people, while in Blankenese 17 general practitioners are available for around 13,500 citizens. SOVD boss Klaus Wicher vehemently demands new medical care centers in the socially disadvantaged districts of the Hanseatic city, where the need is greatest.

A closer look at the numbers shows that Hamburg has the highest density of outpatient doctors in Germany, with almost 4,200 medical seats, but the distribution remains unbalanced. Fortunately, the average distance to a family doctor is less than 500 meters, but the paths to fundamentally supplied specialists with 1,000 to 3,000 meters are suboptimal. A degree of supply of 110.1 percent in general practitioners speaks for itself, but complaints about long waiting times for specialists make it clear that the need is not always covered. This inequality in access to health care is not only a problem of infrastructure, but is also closely related to social factors.

social inequalities in healthcare

like the AOK is required to distribute the resources more fairly. A way must be found to think of medical with social health. This means that actors from different areas - from politics to clinics to practices - have to pull together to improve the health care of people with low social status.

The Federal Center for Political Education emphasizes that despite a comprehensive social security system, there are considerable inequalities in the living conditions and health care. People with low social status are more often affected by chronic diseases and assess their health worse. The connection between social origin and educational opportunities increases this problem.

Reality illustrates the need for stronger sensitization and networking of doctors with social institutions. It is important to sensitize the entire practice team for this topic in order to pick up the patients where they stand. The challenge of perceiving social problems and proactively addressing is an essential step on the way to a fairer health care.

The VDEK, the Association of Replacement Cashys, also sees a need for action and calls for a fairer distribution of costs between statutory health insurance and public budgets. Kathrin Herbst, the head of the VDEK state representative, knows that investment costs for hospitals in Hamburg have to be increased in order to be up to the challenges of the future.