RKI

Opportunity to take sick leave by phone ends

The possibility of telephone sick leave for mild cold symptoms without visiting the practice is coming to an end. The special regulation of the Federal Joint Committee of doctors, clinics and health insurance companies introduced in the Corona crisis only applies until this Friday (March 31).

Committee chairman Josef Hecken told the German Press Agency that sick leave by telephone had fulfilled its function during the pandemic – as an “easily implementable way of distinguishing between mild and severe cases of illness and avoiding full waiting rooms”.

In view of the current risk assessment by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), it is now being phased out. Hecken made it clear that you keep an eye on them and can activate them again very quickly if necessary.

General practitioners and consumer advocates are calling for the regulation to be retained. “To put it bluntly: it’s no longer possible without the phone sick note,” said the deputy head of the German Association of General Practitioners, Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth, the editorial network Germany (RND / Friday).

This applies in particular to the acute waves of infection, as there were last winter. “Anyone who now pulls the plug on sick leave by telephone endangers the supply and accepts that the family doctor’s practices will come under increasing pressure,” emphasized Buhlinger-Göpfarth.

Since the end of March 2020, it has been possible almost continuously to call in sick for mild respiratory problems. This should reduce unnecessary contacts and avoid corona infections. The Federal Joint Committee had extended the special regulation several times, most recently until March 31. The RKI downgraded the risk assessment for Germany from high to moderate in early February.

Hospital society: End the obligation to wear masks in the healthcare sector

The German Hospital Society (DKG) is again calling for an end to the mask requirement in the healthcare sector and an end to the obligation to isolate. “The offer of free tests in Germany ends at the end of February, one month earlier the mask requirement on public transport. Politicians are already sending the signal that the pandemic is coming to an end and that Corona has become a “normal” disease,” said Gerald Gaß, chairman of the “Rheinische Post” (Tuesday). The DKG considers it logical to abolish the obligation to wear masks in healthcare and the obligation to isolate at the end of February. “It’s time to get back to normal.”

He believed that hospital staff would continue to protect patients even after the end of the isolation requirement. “And as before the pandemic, masks are still worn in hospitals where there is an increased risk of infection,” said Gass.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) rejects a quick end to the mask requirement in the healthcare sector. He justifies this with the protection of particularly vulnerable people.