AfD on health and care

The AfD wants to set up a state fund that subsidizes liability insurance premiums for freelance midwives. The platform cites a looming shortage of midwives in rural areas.

Midwives pay a lot for their insurance. The state should help them with that. There should be a special fund for it. This way, rural areas should have enough midwives.

According to the platform, every woman is entitled to a midwife's care during birth, before, and after. High insurance premiums threaten the livelihood of many freelance midwives. The fund would be financed from state money.

The AfD wants to improve working conditions in care and ensure well-trained, well-paid staff. Society as a whole should bear the cost of care, without burdening family members.

Work in care should get better. Care workers should be well trained and well paid. Families should not have to pay for care. Society as a whole should do that.

According to the platform, people who need intensive care are entitled to competent professional care. The AfD sees serious shortcomings today that should be fixed quickly. It calls a dignified life for seniors an obligation.

The AfD wants to train more doctors in the state and give more support to practices in rural areas. Medical school places, rural doctor scholarships, and subsidies would be expanded, and red tape in practices and hospitals reduced.

Rural areas lack doctors. The AfD wants to train more doctors in Brandenburg. There should be more scholarships for future rural doctors. Doctors should have less paperwork.

Enough study places are to be created quickly at the planned university medical center in Cottbus, and the Brandenburg Medical School would get steady funding. Scholarships in the rural doctor program would match demand and become more flexible; subsidies for rural practices would rise. Employing young doctors from Central and Southeastern Europe should not become permanent. New digital tools would be introduced only if they demonstrably cut administrative work. The AfD wants to protect the profession of Heilpraktiker (alternative practitioner).

The AfD wants to set up new hospital departments so that every pregnant woman can reach a maternity ward within 40 minutes. Each woman in labor is to be cared for by her own midwife.

The AfD wants more maternity wards in hospitals. Every pregnant woman should get there in 40 minutes. During birth, one midwife should care for just one woman.

The platform calls for additional obstetric departments. The goal is a travel time of no more than 40 minutes and one-to-one midwife care. When freelance midwives work in such departments, the hospital that hires them is to provide their liability insurance.

The AfD wants to tackle the shortage of nursing staff with more training places, scholarships and better pay. People who care for relatives at home are to receive wage-replacement benefits.

The AfD wants to train more nurses in Brandenburg. There should be more training places and scholarships. People who care for family members at home should get money for it.

The platform calls for enough training places and hands-on training. Scholarships would come with a duty to work in Brandenburg for several years afterward. Pay in eastern and western Germany is to be equalized, and nursing staff should speak German. For family caregivers, the AfD plans wage-replacement benefits and a better advice network. Home care is to become a central part of the social security system.

The AfD wants to abolish budget caps for doctors and dentists so that treatment is not limited by budgets. It also wants to bring back the new-patient rule so that new patients get appointments faster.

Doctors today have a limited budget for treatments. The AfD wants to remove this limit. Health insurance fees should not go up because of it. New patients should get an appointment faster.

The extra costs are not to be passed on to patients through higher insurance contributions. As a funding source, the platform suggests paying for non-insurance benefits entirely from taxes. The AfD plans an initiative in the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states) for this. The new-patient rule is meant to give practices an incentive to take on additional patients despite heavy workloads.

The AfD calls for thorough checks of foreign medical degrees and work references, especially from countries outside the EU. Doctors trained abroad should also know the German health system from day one.

Some doctors studied in other countries. The AfD wants to check their papers closely. This applies most to countries outside the EU. These doctors should also know the German health system well.

Applicants are to provide contact details so German embassies and consulates can verify their career history. The platform justifies this with the high standard of German medical training. Knowledge of insurers, self-governance and responsibilities should be in place when the doctor starts work. This is meant to let foreign-trained doctors work on an equal footing.

The AfD wants to prevent hospital closures, improve hospital reimbursement and permanently raise state investment. New units for short-term care and early rehabilitation are meant to strengthen hospitals in rural areas.

The AfD does not want hospitals to close. Hospitals should get more money. Hospitals should get new units for short-term care. Early rehab should also be possible there.

The platform blames political decisions, lower case numbers since Covid and rising costs for the hospitals' problems. Short-term care units are meant to keep patients from staying in acute wards longer than needed. Units for interdisciplinary early rehabilitation are to be set up statewide to avoid very early discharges or transfers. In the AfD's view, both would also help secure rural hospitals.

The AfD wants to revise the state's emergency services law and involve aid organizations and private companies more. An overall plan is meant to get ambulances to patients faster.

The AfD wants to change the law on emergency services. Private companies should also take part. Ambulances should reach patients faster. More people should know the number 116 117.

Competition among providers is meant to hold down costs, as the platform considers call-out fees in Brandenburg high. An information campaign would make the on-call doctor service at 116 117 better known and relieve the 112 emergency line. To cut response times, the AfD names better roads and more air rescue. The first-responder system is also to be expanded.

The AfD rejects any vaccine mandate and wants a scientific and legal review of Covid policy in Brandenburg. In future outbreaks, only evidence-based and proportionate measures should apply.

The AfD does not want mandatory vaccination. Everyone should decide about their own body. The AfD wants Covid policy in the state to be examined. The WHO should have no say in Brandenburg.

The platform cites the basic right to physical integrity. The AfD rejects restrictions on basic rights imposed by administrative powers without parliaments being involved. It also wants to oppose giving international bodies such as the World Health Organization authority over the state's health policy.