[Clinical gastroenterology--luxury or standard of service in gastroenterology?]

Gastroenterology is one of the important specialities in internal medicine. The reform of the training curriculum for internal medicine and the reimbursement for inpatient and outpatient services in gastroenterology threatens the existence of internal medicine and gastroenterology in Germany, too. The capacity for training in internal medicine and gastroenterology is reduced by a decrease in the number of hospital beds in academic and community training centres. The concentration on gastrointestinal endoscopy in outpatient gastroenterology will be a result of an increasing demand for gastrointestinal endoscopy services and the decreasing number of gastroenterology clinics, respectively. Therefore, clinical gastroenterology as a core service in gastroenterology will be steadily eliminated. This development will diminish clinical gastroenterology to gastrointestinal endoscopy by eliminating the clinical services for chronic gastroenterological conditions such as, e.g., IBD, chronic hepatitis, reflux disease, IBS and functional dyspepsia. In this way gastroenterology looses its central role in health care services in specialised internal medicine. In 2003 the American Gastroenterological Association position paper: "Training the Gastroenterologist of the Future: the Gastroenterology Core Curriculum" was published. It has emphasised the role of clinical gastroenterology in medical training and medical services, too. Clinical gastroenterology consists of an array of several disciplines, e.g., GI physiology, GI research, infectious diseases, hepatology, oncology and gastrointestinal endoscopy, which all contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency in health care service. Financial incentives and better prospects of leading positions for young gastroenterologists in clinical gastroenterology have to be accomplished in order to nourish clinical gastroenterology in Germany. The German Association of Gastroenterology should negotiate with the responsible authorities for the addition of clinical gastroenterological services to the reimbursement by the EBM2000plus. The section of Gastroenterology of the German Association of Internists will provide sustained support to the achievement of this goal.