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“The motto is: vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.” The Chancellor's appeal was two weeks ago - but the daily number of vaccinations has not changed much since then.

The previous high was 340,000 vaccinations per day, the average since the beginning of March has been around 200,000.

Now there is a threat of further declines because of the hack at AstraZeneca.

In addition, some federal states want to close their vaccination centers over Easter.

For comparison: the USA recently inoculated 3.5 million doses in one day.

Sure: Germany still has too little vaccine.

But there are already between one and four million cans per week in the cupboards.

At the latest, when the delivery quantities increase significantly in the coming weeks and the general practitioners become part of the campaign, it seems clear: the daily capacity must increase - and many times over.

A jump to a million per day is easily feasible, says Achim Wallau, family doctor from Wiesbaden and co-developer of vaccination planner 4.0.

"The stay in the vaccination center can be reduced to up to five minutes - so far it has usually been 45 minutes or more."

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Because both the allocation of appointments and the data processing of each individual on-site willing to vaccinate has been a bottleneck - if desired, there is also clarification.

Using the vaccination planner, on the other hand, all general practitioners could set appointments, record the data and inform their patients - regardless of who actually administered the vaccination.

Achim Wallau is a family doctor and would like to promote the vaccination campaign in Germany with his software

Source: Achim Wallau's practice

Because in the vaccination center, the data comparison takes place individually, manually and in several steps.

This labor-intensive process could be done in advance and uniformly.

"The problem is that too much time is wasted where it really matters," says Arash Nawwaby, IT developer and founder of the Heilbronn-based company Navatec, which is behind the software for Vaccination Planner 4.0.

His approach: "Citizens are registered with the family doctor and, after choosing an individual vaccine, receive their appointment at the center - or in the practice, depending on availability." At the appointment itself, all that remains is to present a ticket with a QR code containing all the data.

This would reduce the previous paperwork.

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Another time advantage: the program can also provide the interfaces to the planned digital vaccination certificate.

"Herd immunity could be achieved after just three months," believes the family doctor Wallau.

So far, however, the software has not been used anywhere. According to its own information, Navatec has been negotiating with several state governments for months.

Another advantage of the vaccination planner is also its biggest shortcoming: The database should also function as a logistics platform and become the central vaccine ordering system for general practitioners - also for any necessary follow-up vaccinations.

Practices want processing by tool or telephone

However, this will only succeed if it is used throughout Germany or at least uniformly in individual countries, because the distribution is controlled at the state level.

However, there was already no uniform system in the vaccination centers; many countries opted for local solutions.

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Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) made it clear early on: The federal government is responsible for delivering the vaccines, but the operation of the centers is the responsibility of the federal states.

It is different with the practices.

Responsibility is shifting back to the federal government, at least on the paper.

However, there is no uniform system for making appointments and providing information throughout Germany.

Many practices want to handle vaccinations by phone or appointment tools such as Doctolib.

Each practice can order the vaccination doses individually, the quantities are specified by the federal government.

When asked, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) said: “Doctors in private practice know their patients and, according to the prioritization, will address those who should have their turn first.

Immobile patients will vaccinate them at home. "

Many practices therefore rely on the "established way".

The vaccination for the flu season illustrates its efficiency: "Doctors in private practice vaccinate over 20 million doses in a few weeks".

However: by the end of April, the total amount of doses for the practices will be "very small," says the KBV spokesman.

For the time being, it's a million a week, that's 20 per practice - only a fifth of what they could at least manage.

With these quantities, the question of booking appointments does not arise anyway, according to the KBV.

Already three weeks ago, KBV boss Andreas Gassen said in an interview with WELT that 50,000 practices could certainly vaccinate 20 million people per month - provided that enough supplies are supplied.

A primary vaccination could be completed as early as June and the extensive immunization of the adult population by early August, said Gassen.

The extent to which the new recommendations for AstraZeneca's vaccine will fail this prognosis is not yet foreseeable - the current prioritization will probably become obsolete in May or June due to the soon increasing quantities.

By then at the latest, however, many practices are threatened with a rush to the appointments.

So far, Navatec has benefited less from this than the Munich-based start-up Jameda.

The online platform, which belongs to Hubert Burda Media, is intended to relieve the doctors and, above all, the staff in the practices and thus increase vaccination efficiency.

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Because the telephone lines, which are often busy anyway, will soon be even more busy - which could lead to longer waiting times.

"We know how busy doctors are even without corona vaccinations," says Florian Weiß, managing director of Jameda, which claims to be the market leader for appointments in the healthcare sector.

The digital processing has several advantages: When booking the first appointment, the appointment for the second vaccination dose is automatically assigned, and the booking is not tied to the opening times of the practices.

Slots that have become free at short notice can also be closed again quickly - so that no deadlines pass unused or cans expire.

In addition, doctors can upload documents such as the information sheet or information about the procedure in the practice in the appointment confirmation.

If that happens, the length of stay can be reduced immensely in practice.