‘An unnecessary extra administrative burden that ends up on our plate again’. This is how general practitioner Heleen Sijtsema of the Havendokters in Assen describes the request of health care minister Kuipers (VWS).
All general practitioners received a letter last week asking them to make a selection of all patients under the age of sixty and people with a higher medical risk. In mid-September, they will be the first to be eligible for the repeat shot against the coronavirus. GPs should make that selection. And therein lies the pain point.
“These activities were not discussed with us in advance,” says Lamiek Westerhof, chairman of the Drenthe GPs (HZD). “As far as we know, the national general practitioners’ association LHV is still in talks with the minister about the details and conditions of this request. It is not even clear yet which vaccinations will become available, for example.”
Despite the fact that there are still open ends, GPs are already being asked to map out the target group and invite them for the corona repeat injection. “It indicates the lack of communication. And that while the water is on our lips. It causes annoyance and that really needs to change,” Westerhof clarifies.
Jeanet Scheper of the Veedokters in Barger-Compascuum and Zwartemeer also criticizes the state of affairs. The extra workload that such a selection entails is particularly frustrating. “Throw over the fence again. That’s how it feels. And that while we are already walking on our gums. It is not for nothing that we demonstrated at the Malieveld at the beginning of July against the increasing workload.”
Minister Kuipers did not show up there at the time. “You don’t just make such a selection. Things are only added and nothing is taken off.”
“The administrative burden of the corona repeat injection belongs to the GGD,” says general practitioner Heleen Sijtsema of De Havendokters in Assen. “The covid vaccinations are organized nationwide. Then the GGD can also write to this group of people?
Two national action groups of general practitioners have now sent care minister Ernst Kuipers a ‘motion of sadness’ about the extra work they will have to do in preparation for the next corona vaccination round, one of the two groups confirms after reporting by the AD. “It is the umpteenth time that GPs, without consultation, are confronted with extra work”, write the action groups ‘Help the GP drowns’ and ‘De Bevlogen Huisartsen’.
“Such a motion of sadness is a good action,” said Sijtsema. “The National Association of General Practitioners must now stand up and say ‘no’.”
Westerhof of Huisartsenzorg Drenthe is waiting for the talks that the LHV has with the minister.