Head of statutory medical health insurance physicians: “Commercialization of dying” – Gassen requires debate on most therapy for the critically unwell | EUROtoday

Andreas Gassen, head of the statutory medical health insurance scheme, wish to see a debate about how you can cope with critically unwell folks. “This is indeed a very difficult topic. But I do think that we have to address the question of whether there might be a certain automatism in making maximum use of all medical and technical possibilities, even if this is not in the interests of the patients in every individual case,” Gassen informed the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.

In the newspaper interview, Gassen was requested about statements by CDU well being politician and Federal Drug Commissioner Hendrik Streeck, who had raised the query of whether or not all medical choices ought to actually be exhausted for very outdated and sick folks. “Some doctors have understandable difficulties with this,” stated the pinnacle of the statutory medical health insurance firm. “To give up on a person, to say: I can’t do anything anymore, that’s like a defeat.”

No “right answer” doable

Gassen referred to as it “fundamentally wrong and unethical” to conduct the dialogue solely based mostly on prices or the age of the sufferers. “Nobody wants to seriously ask the question of how much a life is worth,” he stated. There are additionally many critically unwell middle-aged folks within the oncology and palliative care wards.

It is vital to debate these questions overtly and sensitively. “There will never be a single correct answer anyway,” stated the physician Gassen and added: “Ultimately, patients, if they are conscious, have to decide together with the treating doctors, which is what usually happens.” But giving the recommendation in particular person instances to stay at house for 4 extra weeks as a substitute of six or seven weeks with most medical gear within the clinic additionally requires braveness.

It is vital to stop the “commercialization of dying,” stated Gassen. However, he doesn’t see the legislator’s function on this debate