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To protect the health system in winter, Minister Spahn is promoting vaccination against influenza. The government bought more doses than ever. Telephone sickness reports should also be possible again.
In light of the corona crisis and the upcoming flu season, the government is trying to protect the healthcare system from overload. The Federal Minister of Health called for as many people as possible to get vaccinated against the flu. In addition, in the coming months sick leave due to respiratory diseases will be simplified.
The Federal Ministry of Health ordered 26 million cans for this season. “Never before have so many doses of vaccination been available for influenza vaccination in Germany,” Spahn said. However, these would not be available all at once. Therefore, there could be bottlenecks in local delivery. “But we don’t have supply bottlenecks,” Spahn emphasized.
Criticisms of doctors
However, the criticism came from medical representatives. Many of them perceive an increase in demand, said the German Association of General Practitioners. At the same time, general practitioner practices in many places would have to wait for the next batch of flu vaccine. “Demand in many regions is very high at the beginning of this year, certainly also due to the high-profile calls from politics.”
That is one reason to be happy. “However, in the practices of some general practitioners, the first doses of vaccination have already been inoculated and colleagues are desperately looking for new supplies,” said Ulrich Weigeldt, federal president of the Association of General Practitioners. “Therefore, I appeal to politicians: we must urgently ensure that now there are enough doses of vaccine everywhere and that there are no long delays. It should not be that on the one hand there is a call for vaccines, but then vaccines do not comply “.
The professional association of pediatricians (BVKJ) also warned of bottlenecks. The 26 million doses of vaccines apparently weren’t even enough for all at-risk patients, said BVKJ president Thomas Fischbach of the “Augsburger Allgemeine.”
Pharmacists don’t see any bottlenecks
Spahn explained that the vaccine will not be delivered in a day, but will be available gradually. It makes sense to get vaccinated in November or December. In recent years, according to Spahns, between four and six million doses of vaccines have been destroyed because they were not used.
Spahn was endorsed by the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations (ABDA). She does not see any bottlenecks in the supply of flu vaccines in Germany. The 26 million doses of vaccines available are “far from exhausted,” a spokesman said. In no case should the brakes be applied to vaccination against influenza.
Spahn: Vaccinations make sense in December too
Spahn appealed to those to vaccinate “for whom the Permanent Commission on Vaccination recommends a vaccine.” “Protect yourself, protect others, protect our health system.” The fewer people who get the flu, the more capabilities are available to other patients, especially those with Covid-19.
In the corona pandemic, vaccination against influenza is recommended especially for risk groups such as the elderly and the chronically ill. The goal is to avoid superinfections with other dangerous pathogens, but also to keep the number of hospitalizations for influenza as low as possible. Influenza vaccination is also recommended for medical personnel in hospitals, nursing facilities, and for the elderly and in the healthcare sector, as well as for pregnant women and residents of nursing homes or nursing homes.
Telephone sickness notification is allowed
In addition, Spahn announced “that it will still be possible to prescribe work disability by telephone for respiratory diseases until the end of the year.” The joint self-administration of the health system will be decided on Thursday. “I can only welcome you because, of course, we want to avoid possible infections in medical care and in the doctor’s office with flu and corona.”
Spahn was concerned about the rise in corona infections among the elderly. The minister said that the numbers rose faster among the elderly than among the younger. This is concerning because the risk increases with age. It makes a big difference “whether you have 10,000 infected 20-year-olds or 10,000 infected 80-year-olds.” Therefore, attention must be paid to protection in healthcare and care facilities.
Situation in the health service “worrying”
Spahn also described the situation in the health service as worrisome, where they threatened bottlenecks in contact tracing. This is still relatively successful in Germany. With the increasing number of corona infections in recent weeks, Germany’s health authorities have more to do again.
Spahn also called for priorities to be set for corona tests. In the context of current regulation in some federal states that guests from risk areas can only be accommodated with a negative Corona test, testing capabilities are widely used in cities like Berlin, Spahn said. That is a huge effort. You have to pay attention to priorities.
