CDU on health and care

The CDU wants to standardize and connect the technology of the state's dispatch centers under a new concept. The on-call medical service and the dispatch centers are to hand over cases to each other digitally so that patients are directed more effectively.

The CDU wants to modernize emergency medical services. Dispatch centers should use the same technology. A dispatch center takes emergency calls and sends help. The on-call doctor service should be able to send data straight to the dispatch centers.

The program calls for a new dispatch center concept that reorganizes technology, structures and the links to hospitals. First responders are to be alerted by smartphone in a uniform way across the state. Vehicles, equipment and procedures in emergency services are to be standardized statewide, and investments in ambulance stations carried out soon. The plan also includes more defibrillators, including for the police, and support for mountain, water and cave rescue. A statewide system for transferring emergency patients between facilities is to be set up.

The CDU wants to secure medical care close to home across the state. To that end, more university places in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy are to be created and the rural doctor quota raised.

The CDU wants doctors to be nearby everywhere in the state. There should be more university places for medicine. More places should go to future rural doctors. Local pharmacies should also be strengthened.

The state is to take part in scholarship programs run by municipalities. For more medical specialties than before, residency training is to combine hospital and outpatient practice so that young doctors are introduced earlier to setting up their own practice. The CDU supports practice models with several health professions in which municipalities can also take part; this is meant to meet younger doctors' wish for salaried positions and teamwork. For local pharmacies, it wants to push for good conditions at the federal level.

The CDU commits to the dual system of hospital financing and wants to expand the state's investment funding. This is meant to secure basic and standard care with emergency departments across the state.

The CDU wants to give more money to hospitals. The state pays for buildings and equipment. Health insurers pay for day-to-day operations. This should mean good hospitals everywhere in the state.

Under dual financing, the states cover investments and health insurers cover operations. The higher funding is also meant to cover the costs of digitalization. At the same time, the CDU supports the creation of specialized centers. At the federal level, it wants to ensure that hospitals in Baden-Württemberg are no longer worse off in operating cost financing, as the program describes it.

The CDU supports the federal plan for family doctors to guide patients through the health system. In emergency care, it relies on integrated emergency centers that are to be reachable within a 30-minute drive.

The CDU wants family doctors to guide patients through the health system. Digital services should help with appointments. There should be emergency centers for urgent cases. Everyone should reach such a center in 30 minutes by car.

Digital guidance and appointment services are to direct patients in a binding way and avoid duplicate examinations. Telemedicine and the digital patient record are to be used, and common diagnostics and therapies, for example for tumors, are to become available beyond large sites through digitalization. In the emergency centers, hospitals and the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung (association of statutory health insurance physicians) are to cooperate on a binding basis. The plan also includes a central bed registry, a digital platform between emergency services and hospitals, and a trial of an acute transport vehicle as a level between emergency response and patient transport.

The CDU wants to make health professions more attractive through better working conditions and to expand training. Qualifications of foreign professionals in medicine and nursing are to be recognized faster and digitally.

The CDU wants more skilled workers in health and care. The work should pay better and be easier to plan. Qualifications from abroad should be recognized faster. Training at schools for health professions should be free of tuition.

The program names fair pay, predictable working hours and modern infrastructure as goals. Local services by therapists and by midwives working outside hospitals are to be preserved, and new professions such as physician assistants or advanced practice nurses are to be added. The CDU commits to tuition-free training at private substitute schools for health professions and wants to expand part-time training. Nursing students whose block classes take place away from home are to receive an overnight allowance again. Training for nursing assistants is to be supplemented with German classes and social work.

The CDU wants to strengthen medical research in the state, especially on cardiovascular disease and cancer. Health data should be easier to share and to use for research, and a statewide biobank is to be set up.

The CDU wants more health research. The focus is on heart disease and cancer. Doctors and hospitals should share data more easily. A biobank should collect samples for research.

The platform sets the goal of leading Germany in diagnostics and therapy. Data sharing among health care players is to grow, as is the use of care data in research. A Baden-Württemberg biobank would provide samples and data for biomedical research. Findings from basic science should move into clinical trials faster. For people with ME/CFS or post-COVID, the CDU plans tiered treatment options ranging from family doctors to specialized university outpatient clinics.

The CDU wants to equip the public health service with modern technology, digital networks and qualified staff. At the same time, the health system is to be better prepared for pandemics, disasters and security threats.

The CDU wants better public health offices. They should get modern technology and good staff. Then they can act fast in a crisis. Hospitals and doctors should also be ready for crises.

Public health offices should be able to break chains of infection quickly and inform the public effectively. To that end, the CDU plans investment in equipment, digitalization and staff, along with close cooperation with family doctors, hospitals and social service providers. For emergencies, the platform calls for coordination across all levels of government and cooperation between civilian and military structures, coordinated by the state. Crisis plans should account for the multiple burdens on medical staff. European production and strategic reserves are meant to reduce dependence on international supply chains.

The CDU wants to press at the federal level for Baden-Württemberg to stop being disadvantaged in the financial equalization among health insurers. According to the platform, the state loses nearly one billion euros a year because of the regional factor.

Health insurers share money among each other. The CDU says Baden-Württemberg gets too little. Almost one billion euros are missing each year. The CDU wants the federal government to change that.

The Risikostrukturausgleich (risk structure equalization) distributes money among the statutory health insurers. In the CDU's view, redistribution among insurers, regions and states has distorted it over the years. The so-called regional factor alone is said to cost the state almost one billion euros in allocations each year. The platform says this money is missing from health care in the state, much as with hospital funding.

The CDU wants good long-term care to remain available close to home and affordable. To that end it is considering having the state resume funding investments by nursing homes, and it wants to give more relief to relatives who provide care at home.

The CDU wants good care close to home. Care should stay affordable. The state may pay for nursing home buildings again. People who care for relatives at home should get more help.

Besides investment funding for nursing homes, the CDU is considering better state support for short-term, long-term and day care as well as new forms of housing. The state's building rules for care homes are to be revised. The plan is a dense network of home care services, mobile care and neighborhood-based concepts with easy-access counseling. For family caregivers, short-term and respite care are to grow considerably, along with flexible care-leave models and digital platforms. The CDU wants to expand palliative care, hospice capacity and outpatient end-of-life support. New concepts such as "stambulant" (a mix of inpatient and outpatient care) are to become part of regular care.

The CDU wants to make nursing more attractive through fair pay, binding staffing ratios and predictable schedules. Foreign nursing qualifications are to be recognized faster so that skilled workers from abroad can start working quickly.

The CDU wants better jobs for nursing staff. They should get fair pay. Work schedules should be reliable. Nurses from other countries should be able to work here sooner.

The plans include better career paths, modern training programs and targeted continuing education. The CDU wants to make full use of the federal law that expands nurses' powers and cuts red tape in care. Recognition of foreign qualifications is to be sped up further. The state's competence center for care and digitalization is to help bring in assistance systems, robotics and digital platforms. Multi-professional teams and new job profiles such as the community health nurse are also to be established.

The CDU wants to keep rising out-of-pocket costs from overwhelming people who need care and their families. At the federal level it is pushing for long-term care insurance that stays stable over time and combines personal responsibility with solidarity.

Care costs a lot of money. People pay part of it themselves. The CDU wants this part to stay manageable. Care insurance should stay stable for a long time.

According to the platform, care should not overburden people in need of care, their relatives or care facilities. Better benefits and higher costs should not fall solely on those affected and their families. Reforming long-term care insurance is a federal matter, so the CDU announces that it will press for this at the federal level.