Federal General Meeting

01.12.2009 10:32

More constitutional freedom instead of state regulation

The anniversary general meeting to mark the 60th anniversary of the NAV Virchow Association ended with an appeal for more constitutional freedom instead of state regulation. Three decades of social legislation with cost-cutting measures not only created a confusing and uncoordinated legal situation, they also restricted medical professional freedom and basic medical rights, reported the NAV-Virchow-Bund.

However, the keynote speaker at the meeting, social and labor law professor Ulrich Preis from the University of Cologne, offered hope: “The freelance profession of doctors may be facing a second spring,” explained Preis and outlined a new, transparent and simple fee system.

The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Annette Widmann-Mauz, who conveyed the federal government's congratulations, expressed her support for the independent medical profession: "Good medical care cannot be organized against the medical profession, but only together with it."