Blockages in the healthcare system – The paradox of simultaneous over- and under-provision

24.07.2025 14:58

Compared internationally, Germans have short waiting times for specialist appointments, on average. Nevertheless, not all patients are seen promptly. Despite available appointments and legitimate concerns, service limitations and sanctions prevent adequate care. Nevertheless, there are patients who can unnecessarily see multiple specialists for the same condition, placing additional strain on an already strained system.

„The financial pressure on a highly complex healthcare system has led to a flood of excessive political measures in recent decades, which have not improved the situation but have increasingly complicated it. This has resulted in us being confronted today in many areas with paradoxical, mutually hindering regulations, under which efficient, sensible medical care can hardly be organized anymore,“ laments Dr. Ulrich Tappe, head of the association of office-based gastroenterologists.

From the perspective of the professional association (bng), the primary solution to these problems is honesty within the system. We must acknowledge that with increasing healthcare needs and limited medical resources, we can no longer justify artificial caps on services. At the same time, patients also need to be accountable. Patients must be part of the healthcare system – not merely recipients of care. This will only work with a culture of shared responsibility and accountability.

„Honesty across the boundaries of the system, clear debudgeting of specialist medical services and regulated patient participation – these are the three pillars on which a functioning specialist medical care system must stand in the future,“ explains Dr. Tappe.