Pain doctors are calling for structural changes and appropriate remuneration
17.03.2021 12:16
At the end of the German Pain and Palliative Care Day, the conference presidents Dr. Johannes Horlemann and Dr. Silvia Maurer, to improve pain medicine care in Germany - through structural changes and through appropriate remuneration for speaking medicine. The pain doctors received support for their demands from representatives from politics and health insurance companies. The German Pain and Palliative Care Day took place online for the second time this year and achieved a record number of visitors with almost 4,000 participants.
In Germany, a total of 28 million people suffer from chronic pain. 3.4 million of them suffer from severe pain. Pain experts expect these numbers to rise further in the coming years. An increase in pain patients can already be observed today, said Matthias Mohrmann, member of the board of AOK Rheinland/Hamburg. On average, it takes four years for patients to receive qualified pain therapy. The reason for this, the representatives of the specialist society, health insurance companies and politicians agreed, is a lack of care structures. Around 10,000 pain doctors would be necessary to care for the 3.4 million seriously ill patients alone. But there are only 1,200 pain therapists in Germany.
Demand planning, promoting young talent and better financing
The German Society for Pain Medicine (DGS) has therefore been calling for the inclusion of pain medicine in requirements planning for years so that doctor's positions with a focus on pain medicine can be adequately filled. Not least in order to get young doctors excited about pain medicine, the specialist society is also calling for better financing of pain medicine services. There was support for this demand from politicians at the German Pain and Palliative Care Day. This is how the Bundestag member Dr. Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, Alliance 90/The Greens, calls for better financing of consultation services in pain medicine. The CDU member of the Bundestag, Alexander Krauss, is also in favor of promoting speaking medicine.
Interdisciplinary collaboration as a prerequisite for multimodal pain therapy
In addition, interdisciplinary collaboration must also be more binding, continued Kappert-Gonther. The basis for successful treatment of the pain disorder is the consideration of physical, psychological and social aspects, says Prof. Dr. Johannes Kruse, Medical Director of the Clinic for Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Giessen and President of the German Society for Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy eV (DGPM). In a video message to the congress, SPD member of the Bundestag Martina Stamm-Fibich also emphasized the great importance of holistic treatment that covers all dimensions. Horlemann praised the solidarity between doctors, health insurance companies and politicians and announced that he would continue the dialogue in the interests of better care for pain patients in Germany.