BERLIN/MUNICH (dpa-AFX) – According to the German Hospital Society, the clinics cannot implement the daily data reports required by the new Infection Protection Act. The company wrote to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), his state colleagues and the Bundestag health committee.
“Practicality and feasibility of these data queries were often completely hidden,” says the letter signed by President Ingo Morell and CEO Gerald Gass, which is available to the German Press Agency and about which the “Bild” newspaper also reports.
Patient advocate Eugen Brysch criticized that the foundation of the Corona autumn strategy had been shaken. “The infection situation in the hospitals is the linchpin of all measures of the new Infection Protection Act,” said the board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection of the dpa. Restrictive measures could not be justified without these facts from the hospitals. “Just passed, the Infection Protection Act threatens to become a toothless tiger. The Federal Ministry of Health and the hospital company must resolve this absurd situation immediately.” In the third year of the pandemic, an up-to-date picture of the situation in the clinics is essential. There should also no longer be general postponements of plannable operations without meaningful data.
The hospital company explained that they support the political goal of obtaining a comprehensive picture of the pandemic situation. However, this is not affordable for the software interfaces and digital connection to the health authorities provided by the federal government. In addition, the content of the definition is sometimes so vague that the obligations cannot be followed with certainty and the validity of the assessment of the pandemic situation is doubtful.
“We expect politicians to support hospitals in this difficult situation and not to impose additional, technically unfeasible new requirements that involve considerable effort,” write Morell and Gass. There should be no sanctions for non-compliance with the requirements.
There are fines of 25,000 euros in the room, added the pandemic officer of the University Hospital Rechts der Isar of the TU Munich, Christoph Spinner. A conversion period of less than a week is “absolutely unrealistic”. In addition, the lower health authorities should continue to be reported by fax, said Spinner, who criticizes an “excessive bureaucracy”./sd/DP/ngu