More than 1000 people per practice: Patients rush to the doctor’s office

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Healthcare premiums for basic insurance will also rise sharply in 2024. By 6 percent, according to the forecast of the comparison service Comparison. This year already, the insured had to deal with an average increase of 6.6 percent.

There are many reasons for the increase: the reserves have been reduced, the hospitals want more money, the bureaucracy is enormous, cheap medicines are sometimes not available and more psychotherapies are also having an effect. In addition, according to Comparis experts, more insecure people with diffuse symptoms can be examined.

Young people go to the doctor more often

“Patients walk into the consulting rooms,” headlines the “NZZ”. The number of patients per GP practice has risen to a record high in 2022. Across all specialist groups, the number rose to more than 1,000 patients per practice, according to an evaluation by the doctors’ association FMH. Compared to 2017, the increase is approximately 15 percent.

General practitioners and paediatricians in particular were often consulted. More than four-fifths of 26 to 35-year-olds also received basic insurance last year, according to an analysis of Sanitas customers.

Increasing uncertainty

FMH board member Urs Stoffel also justified the development with increasing uncertainty about personal health. Health awareness has changed a lot, especially among young people – also due to the corona pandemic. A certain pragmatism in dealing with medical trifles seems to have been lost, according to Stoffel. The influx leads to overload in many practices.

Chief GP Philippe Luchsinger also finds the uncertainty factor relevant. However, he assumes that more people are simply ill and need appropriate treatment.

Interesting: the costs per doctor visit decreased slightly in 2022. One reason for this is that there is less time for the individual patient. Luchsinger said in the “NZZ”: “So we worked very efficiently and saved health care money even with fewer staff.” (Russian)

Source:Blick