New Findings in Health and Medicine Described from Institute of General Practice (‘Managing scarcity’- a qualitative study on volunteer-based healthcare for chronically ill, uninsured migrants in Berlin, Germany)

2019 APR 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Health and Medicine. According to news originating from Berlin, Germany, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “In Germany, healthcare for people lacking legal residency status and European Union citizens without health insurance is often provided by non-governmental organisations. Scientific studies assessing the situation of the patients with chronic diseases in this context are scarce.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Institute of General Practice, “We aimed to characterise medical care for chronically ill migrants without health insurance and outline its possibilities and limitations from the treating physicians’ perspective. Qualitative semi-structured interviews; qualitative content analysis. Organisations and facilities providing healthcare for uninsured migrants: free clinics, medical practices and public health services. 14 physicians working regularly in healthcare for uninsured migrants. Delayed contact to the healthcare system was frequently addressed in the interviews. Care was described as constrained by a scarcity of resources that often impedes adequate treatment for many conditions, most pronounced in the case of oncological diseases or chronic viral infections (HIV, hepatitis). For other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, some diagnostics and basic medications were described as partially available, while management of complications or rehabilitative measures are frequently unfeasible. For the patients with mental health problems, attainability of psychotherapeutic treatment is reported as severely limited. Care is predominantly described as fragmented with limitations to information flow and continuity. Which level of care a patient receives appears to depend markedly on the respective non-governmental organisation and the individual commitment, subjective decisions and personal connections of the treating physician. Restrictions in medical care for uninsured migrants have even more impact on chronically ill patients.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Volunteer-based care often constitutes an inadequate compensation for regular access to the healthcare system, as it is strongly influenced by the limitation of its resources and its arbitrariness.”

For more information on this research see: ‘Managing scarcity’- a qualitative study on volunteer-based healthcare for chronically ill, uninsured migrants in Berlin, Germany. BMJ Open, 2019;9(3):e025018. (BMJ Publishing Group - http://group.bmj.com/; BMJ Open - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from C. Linke, Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universitat Berlin, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin and Berlin Institute of Health, Institute of General Practice, Berlin, Germany. Additional authors for this research include C. Heintze and F. Holzinger.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025018. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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