Overview

• Health Minister Nina Warken announced on July 26 that general practitioners will become the mandatory first point of contact, coordinating specialist referrals under a new primary care system.
• The coalition agreement features a “Termingarantie” obliging GPs to secure specialist appointments within a set timeframe or direct patients to hospital-based specialists.
• Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband leaders caution that already overburdened GP practices could turn into a new bottleneck, hindering access to care.
• Consumer advocates urge an expansion of the 116 117 appointment hotline and digital scheduling platforms to streamline direct specialist bookings.
• Publicly insured patients currently wait on average twice as long as privately insured ones for specialist visits, a disparity exacerbated by rural doctor shortages.