[Accessibility of doctors' surgeries in Essen, Germany]

Constructional barriers often prevent persons who are only partially able, for example those requiring a wheel chair for pre-ambulation, from entering buildings where doctors practise. Even though many international and national resolutions have long been demanding free access to the environment for the partially able, this has not been specially prescribed in Germany. Hence, no one knows anything about outpatient health care facilities in this regard. The present study aimed at analysing accessibility to orthopaedic and neurological practices and surgeries for wheelchair patients.

We chose Essen, the sixth largest town in Germany, as an example of an urban area, where orthopaedists and neurologists are frequently accessed by wheelchair patients. We performed on-site investigations of the exterior and interior zones of all orthopaedic and neurological surgery buildings in Essen (each n = 29). Criteria for our descriptive analysis were parking lots for the handicapped, shunting areas, entrances at-grade, steps/stories, banisters, ramps, bells and openers of front, elevator and surgery doors, their opening and width. Following the criteria of the DIN 18 024 standard part 2 ("accessibility") the surgeries were divided into four groups 1) fully accessible; 2) slight barriers; 3) considerable barriers; 4) massive barriers.

None of the 58 investigated surgeries was fully accessible, 21 of the 29 surgeries of each medical specialty had massive barriers, so that wheelchair patients could access these surgeries only with the help of at least two (strong) persons. Six of the 29 orthopaedic and three of the 29 neurological surgeries had slight barriers, whereas two orthopaedic and five neurological surgeries had distinct barriers. Main barriers were steps in the entrance area; front, elevator or surgery doors too narrow (width less than 80 cm), and elevators too small.

For wheelchair patients in Germany, free choice of doctors seems to be massively reduced. Since 80 % of orthopaedic and 90 % of neurological surgeries in Essen do not fulfil the quality feature "constructional accessibility", measures that have been taken in the past to help partially able persons to participate in this respective aspect of social life have not been effective. New measures to improve the present situation should be agreed upon by all the institutions involved (politics, local authorities/construction supervision, sickness funds, doctors and associations of sickness fund physicians, and concerned persons). If voluntary measures do not lead to free choice of doctors for wheelchair patients, further legal regulations appear to be mandatory.