The pandemic still has a firm grip on everyone involved – and is dragging many aspects down. Thus, the additional workload (not only) for physicians in private practice is enormous. A survey by the Central Institute for Health Insurance Physicians in Germany showed that pandemic-related tasks mean about 25 hours of additional work each week.
Pandemic control is currently a central topic. Not only in politics, but especially among medical professionals. Not only that the risk of infection is naturally much higher. A WHO evaluation shows that more than 1.3 million healthcare workers worldwide are now ill. Accordingly, approximately 10% of all COVID-19 cases are physicians and nurses. This is also due, among other things, to the physical and mental exhaustion suffered by employees. This is because during the pandemic, not only were working hours increased to 12 hours a day, but at the same time rest periods were reduced. The additional work demands also in the established area. For example, in connection with COVID-19, we are seeing more patients – an average of about 41 people a week. It is striking, however, that about half of these sufferers are not part of the usual patient base. In addition, there are then about 26 patients who want counseling regarding the virus and its consequences. Broken down in detail, the physicians surveyed indicated that 7.85 hours of the additional work was spent responding to telephone inquiries and 10.2 hours had to be scheduled for testing and data entry. For patients who test positive, approximately 2.85 additional hours are required for counseling, monitoring, and communication with health departments. An additional 10 hours per week on average must be spent on other bureaucratic work. Accordingly, the greatest amount of time is spent on counseling and testing concerned patients. The main criticism is that five times more time is taken up by bureaucracy than by dealing with confirmed COVID-19 cases. A relief of the practices, especially in view of the upcoming infection season, is therefore desirable.
Further reading:
- www.zi.de/fileadmin/images/content/PMs/COVZ_Ergebnisse_100920.pdf (last accessed on 11.09.)
InFo ONCOLOGY & HEMATOLOGY 2020, 8(4): 40 (published 9/19/20, ahead of print).
