Doctors: The licensing restrictions for doctors in the canton of Bern are facing headwinds

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The scheme sets maximum numbers per medical specialty and region for doctors who invoice their work under compulsory health insurance.

The Medical Association of the Canton of Bern, the hospital association of public hospitals “diespitäler.be”, the Association of Private Hospitals of Bern (VPSB) and the Bern Association of Attending Doctors have now challenged the regulation, as they announced on Thursday.

The medical association believes that “such a serious interference with the economic freedom of the medical profession” cannot be achieved through regulation, the organization wrote in a statement. A legal basis is needed.

The affiliated medical association in turn called on politicians to jointly develop an ‘attractive admission management system’ for the medical profession. Overregulation must be prevented from deterring young, competent people from studying medicine and subsequently practicing medicine.

The two hospital associations expressed concerns about their future performance if they could no longer recruit sufficient medical staff. The already tense supply situation will deteriorate further.

The organizations and associations also question the database that the canton used to determine the maximum numbers. This leads to an arbitrary assessment of care needs, they emphasized. And this even in specialist areas where there is currently an undersupply.

As an example, the medical association cited the existing shortage of general practitioners (specialized in general internal medicine) in the Bern Mittelland region.

Also affected are surgery (Emmental-Oberaargau and Biel-Seeland), gastroenterology (Bern-Mittelland), orthopedic surgery and musculoskeletal traumatology (Bern Mittelland, Emmental-Oberaargau, Oberland and Biel-Seeland) and pneumology (Bern-Middleland ) .

The organizations have filed a complaint against individual orders from the cantonal government in the administrative court and against the scheme itself in the federal court. The objectors hope to gain time through the suspensive effect of the complaint.

With the regulation, the cantonal government of Bern says it is implementing federal legal requirements. This is intended to prevent an oversupply of medical services in the future that would increase costs in individual departments or regions.

The Berne Health Department wrote in a statement at the end of November that it had “carefully determined” the maximum values ​​so as not to endanger security of supply.

With the admission restriction, the canton also hopes that new doctors will settle not only in and near the centers, but also in administrative districts where there is a shortage.

The canton’s plan received little support from the medical profession from the start. After an initial design, the health department made improvements.

Regions with fewer than 10 full-time equivalents per specialty are now exempt from setting maximum numbers, even if the level of care exceeds 100 percent.

In addition, an enrollment freeze will only take place when the pension level has reached 115 percent, to allow for a certain degree of competition, to accommodate upcoming retirements in the coming years and to gain initial experience with the implementation of the current enrollment freeze . (SDA)

Source:Blick