CDU on health and care

The CDU wants to make the routine pediatric checkups (U-Untersuchungen) mandatory. Regular doctor visits are meant to help detect early signs of violence. The CDU also wants to expand therapy services designed to keep people from becoming offenders.

Children go to regular checkups at the doctor. The CDU wants all children to have to take part. Doctors should then notice early if a child suffers violence. There should also be more therapy for possible offenders.

The platform notes that psychological, physical, or sexual violence often goes on for months and years. Young children in particular should therefore be seen by a doctor regularly. For prevention, the CDU wants to strengthen easy-access services for people at risk of becoming offenders. It backs a nationwide therapy network and wants to expand it in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The CDU wants to continue the Landarztquote (rural doctor quota) and award more medical school places through it. Those who receive such a place then work as general practitioners in a region short of doctors. People in rural areas are to have care close to home just as city residents do.

There are too few doctors in rural areas. So the CDU wants to expand the rural doctor quota. This means some places in medical school are reserved. People who get such a place later work as family doctors in the countryside.

The places are to be awarded through a separate selection process. The medical faculty in Ostwestfalen-Lippe is to keep training general practitioners for the region, with a focus on general and outpatient medicine. Medical training in Siegen remains a party goal. The CDU also advocates making doctors' offices as accessible as possible.

The CDU wants to continue reforming hospital planning. Basic and emergency care, obstetrics, and pediatric medicine are to be available close to home everywhere, while complicated procedures are to be handled by specialized hospitals. In the party's view, the market alone must not decide on locations and services.

The CDU wants to keep changing how hospitals are planned. Everywhere, a hospital for emergencies and births should be nearby. Experts in special clinics should do difficult operations. Midwives should get better working conditions.

Planning is to be based on service groups with verifiable quality requirements and lead to an economically viable structure. Both overcapacity and undercapacity are to be avoided. Under the hospital plan, maternity wards are to be reachable in good quality and within a reasonable distance. The CDU wants better conditions and more training for midwives. It supports more midwife-led delivery rooms, where midwives are solely responsible for attending births.

The CDU wants to give hospitals an additional 2.5 billion euros over five years for modernization. It counts hospitals as part of the state's core infrastructure. At the federal level, it wants to reform the system of flat-rate payments per case.

The CDU wants to give hospitals more money. Over five years, it should be 2.5 billion euros extra. This should improve buildings and technology. The way hospitals are paid per case should also change. Today they get a fixed amount for each treatment.

Flat-rate investment funding is to rise by 200 million euros a year from 2023, partly to adapt buildings to climate change. About 300 million euros a year from 2023 is earmarked as start-up funding for structural changes resulting from the new hospital planning. For IT equipment and protection against cyberattacks, 100 million euros a year is to be provided from 2023. The party says the case-based payment system (DRG) has not proven itself; a reform is to secure operating costs for hospitals providing basic and emergency care, obstetrics and pediatric medicine. An expert commission is to draw up proposals for strengthening medical rehabilitation.

The CDU wants to extend the Virtual Hospital to more medical conditions and to every hospital in the state. The tele-emergency doctor system is also to be rolled out statewide. The aim is to make the expertise of university hospitals available to hospitals outside the big cities.

The CDU wants more medicine over the internet. Doctors at big hospitals should advise small hospitals by video. This is called the Virtual Hospital. All hospitals in the state should take part. Emergency doctors should also be able to help by video everywhere.

After intensive care and infectious diseases, the Virtual Hospital is to cover further fields of treatment and include all hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia. Telemedicine services, remote consultations and remote ward rounds are to be paid appropriately. The tele-emergency doctor system is to become available across the whole state. The platform argues that this makes better use of scarce resources and gets help to patients faster. At the federal level, the CDU wants to push for legal and funding rules that allow care across the divide between outpatient practices and hospitals.

The CDU wants to expand portal practices at hospitals and introduce a single reception desk or a uniform initial assessment procedure. Patients are meant to reach the right place of treatment faster. This is intended to ease the load on emergency rooms and hospital outpatient departments.

Many people go straight to the emergency room. The CDU wants to change that. Staff at the front desk should check where a patient belongs. Then the patient gets to the right doctor quickly. Emergency rooms should be less crowded.

Portal practices are contact points run by office-based doctors at hospitals. They are to be expanded together with the hospitals and the associations of statutory health insurance physicians. In addition, the CDU plans a shared reception based on the “one-desk model” or a structured initial assessment system in hospitals, emergency service practices and doctors' offices. The goal is closer cooperation between outpatient and inpatient care and less use of emergency rooms.

The CDU wants to increase funding for medical research and modernize the university hospitals. In the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region, a university hospital is to be created with an investment of one billion euros. Cancer care based on the latest research is to be available close to home.

The CDU wants to spend more on medical research. The big university hospitals should get modern equipment. A new university hospital is planned for the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region. The CDU plans one billion euros for it. Cancer patients should find good treatment near their home.

The platform states the goal of being able to defeat cancer and dementia and wants to create new treatment options for that purpose. The Medizin.NRW cluster and the VIRus ALlianz NRW network are to be developed further. University hospitals are to receive modern medical technology and high-performance digital infrastructure. One billion euros is earmarked for turning the Medical Faculty of Ostwestfalen-Lippe into a university hospital. The CDU also backs combining the University Hospital of Cologne with the city's municipal hospitals into a health cluster.

The CDU wants to build up the public health service and revise the state law that governs it. It points to the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. Statewide crisis management structures are planned.

Local health offices are part of the public health service. The CDU wants to make this service stronger. The law for it should be rewritten. The state should be better prepared for a crisis. The CDU says the COVID-19 period showed this.

The State Center for Health (LZG) is to be expanded and have its tasks redefined by law. The CDU wants to examine whether it can become a state health office. The Academy for Public Health in Düsseldorf is to be strengthened in its training and qualification role. The service is also to work more closely with hospitals, university medicine and disaster control.

The CDU wants to do more for relatives who provide care at home. It seeks a care leave modeled on parental leave and wants to launch a federal initiative for a care allowance that replaces lost wages. People in need of care should be able to live as independently as possible.

Many people care for family members at home. The CDU wants to help them. They should get care leave, similar to parental leave. During that time they should get money to replace their pay. The CDU wants to push for this at the federal level.

The planned care allowance is to follow the model of Elterngeld (parental allowance) and replace lost wages. For family caregivers, the CDU wants flexible working hours, for example through adjustable working-time corridors. Extra childcare, such as priority daycare places, is meant to give them more freedom of choice. Short-term and day care are to become more flexible, and services close to home and in the neighborhood are to grow. At the federal level, the CDU wants long-term care insurance to be reviewed and improved on an ongoing basis.

The CDU wants to recruit more nursing staff, including from abroad. New nurses are to receive a one-time welcome bonus of up to 3,000 euros. Over time, this is meant to bring in up to 10,000 additional nurses a year.

There are not enough nurses. The CDU wants to bring in more, also from other countries. New nurses should get up to 3,000 euros once. This should bring up to 10,000 new nurses each year. They should stay in the state for good.

The platform justifies the staffing push by saying care needs more time and attention and less paperwork. Recruited workers are to be integrated permanently and stay in North Rhine-Westphalia. For short-term shortages in care homes, home care services and hospitals, the CDU seeks staffing pools. It supports pilot projects on new methods for calculating staffing needs and a staff mix that takes all qualification levels into account. For trained nurses returning to the job, it is considering refresher courses, phased reentry models or a bonus.

The CDU wants to improve training and working conditions in nursing. University and training places are to grow, and all nursing staff are to be paid under collective agreements. The platform sees this as the key to having enough qualified staff.

The CDU wants more young people to work in nursing. There should be more places for training and study. All nurses should get pay set by a collective agreement. That is a fixed contract on wages. A voluntary year in nursing should also be more rewarding.

The CDU advocates collectively agreed pay across the board, regardless of the care sector. University places in nursing and health professions and training places for nursing assistants are to be expanded, as is the qualification of teaching staff. A statewide information campaign and more funding for internships are planned. The voluntary social year is to become more attractive, for instance through a “thank-you payment,” better pension credits or free rail travel. Additional childcare at hospitals and care facilities is meant to keep staff in the profession, and the federal government is to fund training in the health professions adequately.

The CDU supports the establishment of the nursing chamber in North Rhine-Westphalia as a professional body. It also favors a nursing chamber at the federal level. Other health professions are to get a stronger voice in state bodies.

A nursing chamber speaks for nurses. One is being set up in North Rhine-Westphalia. The CDU supports this. It also wants a nursing chamber for all of Germany. Other health professions should get more say too.

According to the platform, the nursing chamber in North Rhine-Westphalia is being set up and is to become a strong institution of the profession. The CDU also backs efforts to create a federal nursing chamber. For the other health professions, rights to take part and share in decisions are to be created as far as possible in the responsible state bodies.

The CDU commits to the career civil service with its pensions, salary and Beihilfe (state health cost aid for civil servants). It rejects a flat-rate Beihilfe and a compulsory single insurance; the coexistence of statutory and private health insurance is to remain.

Civil servants get state help with medical costs. This is called Beihilfe. The CDU wants to keep this system. It is against one single insurance for everyone.

The platform names pensions, salary and Beihilfe as the three pillars of the career civil service, which is to be strengthened and made more attractive. The flat-rate Beihilfe, a subsidy toward statutory health insurance in place of the traditional aid, is rejected. The dual system of statutory and private insurers is to continue alongside Beihilfe. In addition, active health management for employees is to be developed further.