CDU on health and care

The CDU wants to improve the structure and funding of maternity care in Hesse and keep maternity wards close to where people live. Midwives are to get more support, and a scholarship is meant to help secure new recruits.

The CDU wants better care around birth. Maternity wards close to home should stay. Midwives should get more support. There should be a scholarship for people training as midwives.

The decisions of the Round Table on Midwives are to be put into practice, for example with midwife-led delivery rooms. The goal is one-to-one care in the delivery room. Early support services for parents (Frühe Hilfen) are to be better linked and made available to all parents. For infant health, the CDU plans medically trained contact persons, for instance in clinics for excessively crying babies. In rural areas, community nurses with extra training are to assist young families once midwife care ends.

The CDU wants to keep basic and emergency care, maternity clinics and pediatrics close to where people live, including in rural areas. State investment funding for hospitals is to stay at least at its current level. The party wants to represent Hesse's interests in the federal hospital reform.

The CDU wants to keep hospitals close to where people live. This also applies to the countryside. Hesse should keep investing a lot of money in hospitals. University hospitals should also get enough money. The CDU wants Hesse to have a say in the federal reform.

The Hessian care summit, which brings together the hospital association, the association of statutory health insurance physicians, municipalities and the state, is to continue and its proposals are to be implemented. Investment is to focus on digitalization, IT equipment, cybersecurity and building modernization. The program considers specialization necessary for complex procedures. University hospitals are to keep receiving support regardless of who runs them, and their specific costs are to be reflected in the federal reform. A third funding pillar from the state and federal governments is to be created for university medicine.

The CDU wants to secure statewide coverage with general practitioners and specialists. To that end, more university places are to be awarded through the rural doctor quota, medical care centers are to be supported, and the "Gemeindeschwester 2.0" (community nurse) project is to become permanent.

The CDU wants more doctors in the countryside. More students should get a place through the rural doctor quota. They later work in a practice in the countryside. There should be more care centers with several doctors. Community nurses should help permanently in many places.

The rural doctor quota is to be extended to further specialties and further underserved areas. Medical care centers (MVZ) are to grow, especially in rural areas, as a supplement to basic care. In-person treatment remains central for the CDU, with telemedicine seen as support. The funding program for "Gemeindeschwester 2.0," so far time-limited, is to be made permanent and extended to as many interested municipalities as possible. The party also wants to secure a dense network of pharmacies and keep an eye on care in nursing homes and on the supply of medicines.

The CDU wants to set up crisis services across the state for people in acute mental health emergencies. It also calls for more psychotherapy places, including for people with statutory insurance and for children, because it believes waiting times put treatment success at risk.

The CDU wants to help people in a mental crisis faster. There should be crisis help everywhere in Hesse. There should be more places for psychotherapy. This also applies to children and people with public health insurance. Waiting times should get shorter.

Existing structures in hospitals and the public health service are to be included, with the public health service taking on coordination. The number of psychotherapists is to rise, and every therapist is to remain obliged to take on a minimum number of patients with statutory insurance. The transition from inpatient to outpatient treatment is to be faster; the program mentions waiting times of up to six months. Patients and relatives are to be better informed about counseling and treatment options.

The CDU wants to raise the status of rescue workers and place them under the Interior Ministry, like the police and fire services. Community emergency paramedics and a statewide rollout of the cross-sector outpatient emergency care project are meant to ease the load on emergency rooms.

The CDU wants to strengthen the rescue service. It should belong to the Interior Ministry, like the police and fire service. New community paramedics should treat less serious cases. Only real emergencies should come to the emergency room.

By placing them under the Interior Ministry, the program aims for equal treatment of all rescue workers ("Rettergleichheit"), including in compensation arrangements. Community emergency paramedics are to handle cases that need neither an ambulance crew nor an emergency physician. The Hessian project "Sektorenübergreifende ambulante Notfallversorgung (SaN)" is to be introduced across the state. As a result, only people who actually need emergency treatment should arrive in emergency rooms.

The CDU wants to train more people in social and health professions and to raise the number of medical school places in Hesse once again. School-based training is to be paid, and high school grades are to count for less in admission to medical school.

The CDU wants to train more skilled workers for health and care. People who attend a school for these jobs should get paid. There should be more places to study medicine. School grades should matter less for this. Staff in doctors' offices should get 500 euros to make up for inflation.

Dual study programs in social and health professions are to be supported. The share of medical school places awarded by grade cutoff (Numerus Clausus) is to fall in favor of the rural doctor quota and applicants with prior medical or social training. The CDU considers a 500-euro inflation bonus necessary for medical and dental assistants and calls on the federal government to pay it; this is also to apply to staff in rescue services and other hospital departments. Hospice and palliative care are to be expanded. A statewide digital platform is meant to ease the transition from hospital to rehabilitation or long-term care.

The CDU wants to prevent shortages in medical care for children and will review rules and structures to that end. It aims for health professionals at all schools, wants to extend preventive checkups, and intends to pay more attention to young people's mental health.

The CDU wants to secure medical care for children. Schools should have health workers. There should be more checkups for children. Children with mental health problems should get better help. People who want to become child psychiatrists can get a scholarship.

Care by doctors in private practice as well as in hospitals is to be adequately funded. Further checkups at elementary school age are to be covered by health insurers, and invitation letters are to be sent for the adolescent checkups J1 and J2. For mental health, existing programs are to be better publicized and gaps closed with new services. A scholarship for specialist training in child and adolescent psychiatry, with its own curriculum, is meant to attract more young doctors.

The CDU wants to expand cancer research in Hesse and link universities and industry more closely for that purpose. The university tumor center in Frankfurt and the Frankfurt Cancer Institute are to be strengthened further.

The CDU wants to strengthen cancer research in Hesse. Universities and companies should work together more closely. The tumor center in Frankfurt should get more support. There should also be special centers for rare diseases.

Cross-regional oncology research clusters are to receive funding. The Frankfurt tumor center is to be established as a project with nationwide reach. The program sees a research gap in cancer therapy for older people that should be closed so that every age group gets suitable treatment. Together with top-level medicine, clusters or special centers for undiagnosed and rare diseases are to be created.

The CDU wants to staff the public health service better and review the Hessian law governing it in light of the pandemic experience. Pandemic plans are to be exercised regularly. Further help is planned for people with long COVID and COVID vaccine injuries.

The CDU wants to strengthen the public health offices. They should get enough staff. Hesse should check and practice its pandemic plans regularly. People with long COVID should keep getting help. People with vaccine injuries should have one central place to turn to.

Uniform digital standards are to apply in the public health service. A staff unit for "resilience preparedness" is to work on the robustness of the health system. Research on long COVID and specialized centers and outpatient clinics are to keep receiving funds. According to the program, vaccine injuries are very rare but should be recognized more; those affected are to receive treatment and, where needed, benefit entitlements, with a contact point at the state health office. The federal government is to revise the Infection Protection Act together with the states to provide more planning and legal certainty.

The CDU wants to extend the tele-emergency physician system to all of Hesse and keep promoting digitalization in health care. Hospitals, practices and citizens should be able to use digital services so that patients receive better care.

The CDU wants more digital medicine. A tele-emergency doctor helps from a distance in emergencies. This should exist in all of Hesse. Doctors should be paid fairly for treatment by video. Practices will keep getting money for digital technology.

The tele-emergency physician is meant to complement the rescue service and use resources more effectively. Telemedical services, remote consultations between doctors and virtual ward rounds are to be paid appropriately. The DIGI-Ambulant funding program, which subsidizes outpatient providers' investments in digital infrastructure, is to continue. The Hessian competence center for telemedicine and e-health, which advises doctors in private practice, is to be developed further. Additional projects are meant to make digital medicine more accessible to people in Hesse.

The CDU wants to give more support to people with addiction and provide money for this from the "Hessen steht Zusammen" fund. Counseling, help with withdrawal and outreach social work in particular are to grow.

The CDU wants to help people with an addiction more. Money for this should come from a state fund. There should be more counseling. There should be more help with withdrawal. Social workers should go out to people more often.

The money from the fund is to go to initiatives that care for people with addiction. Counseling services and help with withdrawal from drug dependency are to be expanded. Outreach social work, in which professionals approach those affected where they are, is also to be given more room.

The CDU opposes legalizing soft drugs such as cannabis, citing risks to health, families and society. At the same time, it wants to expand counseling and support for those affected and to have the substances used as knockout drops strictly regulated.

The CDU does not want to allow cannabis. It says the drug harms health and families. There should be more advice and help for people affected. Substances used for knockout drops should face stricter rules. Knockout drops make people defenseless.

The platform expects cannabis use to rise and therefore wants to broaden counseling and support services. Where municipalities want it, the CDU will support models for controlled dispensing in drop-in centers and consumption rooms, to curb drug-related crime and give people with addictions a place to turn. At the federal level, it wants to push for strong regulation of chemical substances that are typically used as knockout drops and can currently be bought legally. One option the platform names is listing them under the Betäubungsmittelgesetz (Narcotics Act).

The CDU wants a care guarantee: everyone should receive the care they need. To that end, the federal government is to merge the many separate benefit pots for long-term care into one budget that can be used with little red tape.

The CDU wants everyone to get the care they need. Today there are many separate pots of money for care. The federal government should turn them into one pot. That makes things easier for people.

The platform sees long-term care as a task for society as a whole and as part of basic public services. The single budget would replace the current separate budgets, for example for the relief allowance, respite care, day care and in-kind benefits. People in need of care could draw from it the services they personally require. The CDU also wants to set up a "Denkfabrik Pflege" (care think tank) that brings together research, practice and politics.

The CDU wants to introduce a care allowance paid by the state of Hesse. People in need of care could spend the money on themselves or use it to recognize those who care for and support them.

The CDU wants a new care payment from the state of Hesse. People who need care get this money. They can spend it on themselves. Or they can give it to people who help them.

The state care allowance would be paid on top of existing benefits. It goes to the people in need of care themselves. According to the platform, they could also use it to give financial recognition to family caregivers, friends and helpers.

The CDU wants to press the federal government to make it easier for more companies to offer supplementary long-term care insurance. Modeled on company pension plans, this would create a further pillar of provision.

The CDU wants more extra care insurance through employers. This is insurance you get through your job. The federal government should set the rules for it. This should help people prepare for later.

The federal government is to shape the legal framework so that employer-based supplementary insurance for long-term care becomes more common. The platform compares the model to company pension plans. It places this additional pillar of provision within the social market economy.

The CDU wants to expand advice for people in need of care and their relatives. Care support centers are to become competence centers, care managers are to help with bureaucracy statewide, and community nurses and preventive home visits are to spot needs early.

The CDU wants more advice about care. Care managers should help relatives with applications. There should be community nurses everywhere. Experts should visit older people at home early on. That way people get help faster.

The care managers are to point relatives to suitable support and help them with applications and with contacting health and care insurers. The planned care competence centers would also give advice in acute crises and on ethical questions. The CDU wants to fund preventive home visits on the basis of the Hessian Prevention Act. It wants to develop the Hessian care monitor further and use it to support the county care committees in planning services. A dementia strategy is meant to improve care at home and in nursing homes, including with new technology such as care robots.

The CDU expects Hesse to need at least 16,000 additional care workers by 2040. It therefore wants to create more training and university places, win back people who left the profession, recruit skilled workers from abroad and relieve care staff of paperwork.

Hesse needs many more care workers. The CDU wants more training places. Former care workers should come back. Skilled workers from other countries should come too. Care workers should have less paperwork.

An action plan called "Komm in die Pflege" (Come into care) is to cover training and university places, funding programs for qualification and better recognition of foreign credentials. A task force drawn from politics, practice, research and the employment administration is to draw up a staffing drive and oversee it. To reduce dropouts, the platform cites better conditions and appropriate pay during training. Assistant roles are to become more attractive, and the CDU wants to make greater use of retraining together with the Federal Employment Agency. The "Pflege integriert" program is to be opened to refugees from Ukraine. Added to this are a volunteering focus on civic care culture and an initiative for more care time and less bureaucracy.

The CDU calls on the federal government for a comprehensive reform of care benefits, arguing that the federal government's proposals so far fall short. At its core are care leave with wage replacement modeled on parental leave and parental allowance, plus ten days off a year for family caregivers.

Many people care for relatives at home. The CDU wants to help them more. They should get care leave, similar to parental leave. During that time they should get money to replace their pay. They should also get ten days off each year. The federal government should arrange this.

The platform notes that care at home is the most common form of care and makes it its focus. The reform is also to adjust benefits regularly, create a relief budget and guarantee the care allowance. Every family caregiver would be entitled to the ten days of leave each year. Responsibility lies with the federal government; the Hessian CDU intends to lobby there for the reform.

The CDU wants to give family caregivers temporary relief by expanding short-term, respite and day care. A state funding program is to create more places; added to this are an entitlement to rehabilitation, more caregiver courses and new forms of housing and support.

People who care for relatives sometimes need a break. The CDU wants more places for short-term care and day care. The state should pay for this. Family caregivers should get a right to rehab. Rehab means rest and treatment for your health.

Also planned are an information campaign on available help and entitlements and a platform for home-based day care by neighborhood helpers, which the platform calls "childminders for people in need of care." The CDU wants to expand household services and support services and create offers that help family caregivers recover. Shared assisted-living homes are to get more flexibility and fewer legal hurdles, while quality is ensured and residents are protected from abuse. The number of care hotels is to grow. The CDU wants to look at special care situations such as palliative care, care for people with disabilities or addictions, and culturally sensitive care together with those affected and experts.

The CDU demands a plan from the federal government to limit residents' co-payments in nursing homes, saying the announced supplements are not enough. At the state level, it wants to improve the homes' facilities, add staff to care oversight and tie homes more closely into their neighborhoods.

A place in a nursing home costs a lot of money. The CDU wants the federal government to limit the costs for residents. The state should help improve the homes' equipment. More staff should inspect the homes. The homes should be more open to the neighborhood.

The federal plan it calls for would also include inflation-adjusted allowances that limit when relatives must contribute to costs. For residential care, the CDU relies on a variety of providers and statewide coverage. The supervisory authority for care homes is to monitor quality standards and also look for improvements in dialogue with providers and staff. An initiative to upgrade facilities in homes for the elderly and nursing homes is to build on the emergency aid of 2022. Pilot projects called "Pflegeheim mitten im Leben" (nursing home in the midst of life) are to enable self-determined living in shared homes with outpatient care.

The CDU wants to expand the infrastructure and digitalization of rescue services and give paramedics (Notfallsanitäter) more medical authority. Responsibility for rescue services is to move to the ministry in charge of fire and disaster protection.

The CDU wants to keep expanding rescue services. Paramedics should be allowed to decide more on their own in an emergency. There should be more training places for them. Volunteers should be paid back for lost wages during courses. The state of Hesse will pay for this.

The program wants to examine how more training places for paramedics can be created, for example by loosening the link to the number of available ambulances. Volunteers from aid organizations such as the Red Cross, Malteser, ASB, Johanniter and DLRG are to be treated like firefighters when it comes to lost earnings for courses and deployments; the state covers the cost. Moving the responsibility is meant to unify structures and pool resources. Together with the services, plans are to be developed to boost the motivation of rescue workers, for example through fewer call-outs and a review of the multi-purpose vehicle strategy.

The CDU wants to improve medical care in rural regions, from recruiting young doctors to outpatient and inpatient services. In addition, the local first-responder system is to be expanded.

The CDU wants to do more for health care in the countryside. There should be enough doctors and hospitals there. Trained local first-aiders should also get more support. They help until the ambulance arrives.

The program lists recruiting new staff, outpatient and inpatient care, and modern support services as areas of action. The Helfer-vor-Ort (first-responder) system, in which trained volunteers support emergency crews, is to be expanded and supported, especially in rural areas. Fast emergency care across the whole state is to be guaranteed at all times regardless of this.