Aggressive mood, mass rush of people willing to vaccinate and staff at the limit: According to the association, the first general practitioners are refraining from corona vaccinations. "We now have a dangerous development: Numerous general practitioners are signing off from the vaccination system," said the chairman of the North Rhine General Practitioners Association, Oliver Funken, of the Rheinische Post newspaper. General practitioners experienced an extremely aggressive mood in terms of vaccine demand. The telephones in the practices were already running hot, so that the general practitioners would have increasing difficulties with the standard care.
The head of the association also referred to the heavy burden on the employees in the practices.
“Of course we want to help the population, but we also have to keep the well-being of the employees in mind.
And also the continued existence of the practice. ”In view of the chaotic situation, it could not be that the employees decided to resign themselves because they couldn't cope with this mass onslaught.
According to the motto "I'm already here and now I also want to have my vaccination", some people who want to be vaccinated emphatically asked for an injection, Funken told the German press agency.
Vaccine is required for second vaccinations
The mood worsened the closer the vacation came and the more freedom there was. “You want to belong to the three“ G ”: recovered, vaccinated or tested,” explained Funken. In addition, there is frustration when less vaccine arrives than expected. Individual family doctors would withdraw against this background. However, other doctors would also be added to the vaccination system because specialists could increasingly participate. The head of the association is hoping for some relief at the end of the month through additional deliveries. Vaccine is currently needed for the second vaccinations in particular, so that the primary vaccinations cannot currently be as important as before.
In the area of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Westphalia-Lippe, around 80 percent of general practitioners and 20 percent of specialists participate in the vaccination campaign against Corona. A spokesman spoke of isolated cases in which doctors no longer ordered a vaccine. In the Westphalia-Lippe region, around 300,000 vaccine doses are administered in the practices every week. The number of cans has remained about the same, but more practices are added. With the vaccine from AstraZeneca, expectations that the Federal Ministry of Health had recently been met were only partially met. "The doctors who had already given appointments to patients caused great annoyance," explained the association's spokesman.
Funken fears that with the release of the vaccines on June 7th, there could be a new rush of people who want to be vaccinated to the general practitioners' offices. But it is far from the case that everyone can be vaccinated immediately from the deadline. “Prioritization was always the hub where everything hung. Now the bolt is taken out. This will break the dike, ”he explained the scenario. Once again, bottlenecks were becoming apparent for the summer vacation months, as some of the general practitioners and their staff were also going on vacation for one to two weeks each. "We have to assume that 30 percent of the doctor's offices will close for a week or two during the summer vacation."