CDU on health and care

The CDU wants to fund practice clinics that bundle general and specialist care in large counties and in regions where hospitals have closed. The state would finance them without requiring a local co-payment. Health, nursing care and emergency medicine would be combined in one ministry.

The CDU wants to build practice clinics. These are centers with family doctors and specialists under one roof. They would be set up where hospitals have closed. The state pays for setting them up. Care services and pharmacies would also be part of them.

The practice clinics would follow local needs and be planned jointly by county and state. They can be expanded with further services so that help is available outside normal office hours. Pharmacies would be included in regional planning, and care services such as day care and short-term care would be integrated where an operator takes them on. Staff would get family-friendly conditions and flexible working hours. The CDU promises funding without a local contribution and wants to involve municipalities and the health sector's self-governing bodies in the design. Scholarships are also meant to make working as a doctor in rural areas more attractive.

The CDU wants to shorten waiting times for specialist appointments by strengthening appointment service centers and expanding digital booking. Telemedicine and video consultations would become a fixed part of standard care, especially where doctors are scarce.

The CDU wants patients to get specialist appointments faster. More appointments would be arranged digitally. Video visits with a doctor would become normal. This helps most in areas with few doctors.

The program considers waits of weeks or months for exams and treatment unacceptable. Among the measures it names are stronger appointment service centers and more digital booking. The CDU sees telemedicine as a supplement that should not replace in-person medical care in rural areas. In addition, cooperation between outpatient and hospital care should become the norm.

The CDU wants to raise the number of medical school places to 650 and found a second medical faculty. It argues that 40 percent of doctors in private practice are already over 60. A state program is also meant to win back doctors or persuade them to keep working.

The CDU wants more places to study medicine. There would be 650 places, at least 200 more than now. A second medical faculty would also be set up. Many doctors will retire soon. A program would bring doctors back into the job.

The university medical center in Mainz would be strengthened, modernized and reliably funded. Besides at least 200 additional full study places, the CDU plans a second medical faculty and several satellite sites, also together with the neighboring state of Saarland. It wants to support partnerships with universities elsewhere in Europe as a temporary solution. The state program "Start, Stay & Comeback" targets medical students, non-practicing doctors and older doctors, who should work at least part-time. Foreign qualifications would be recognized faster without lowering quality requirements.

The CDU wants emergency medical services to arrive within ten minutes at most. Emergency doctor bases would be kept, especially in rural areas, and air rescue would be expanded as needed and technically upgraded.

An ambulance should arrive in 10 minutes at most. Emergency doctor bases in rural areas should stay. Rescue helicopters should fly where they are needed. They should also be able to fly well at night.

The program counts emergency medical services and emergency care as essential public services and calls for clear responsibilities. The service would become more digital and better connected to shorten the chain of emergency response. Because the CDU sees hospitals and emergency rooms disappearing in rural areas, helicopter care becomes more important. Operating hours and the number of helicopter bases would be adjusted flexibly to actual demand. Night-vision devices and automatic obstacle detection would become standard equipment.

The CDU wants to set up a state health office that coordinates local health departments and ensures uniform standards. By 2030, hospitals, outpatient providers and emergency services are to be digitally linked. Prevention and addiction services are also to be strengthened.

The CDU wants a new state office for health. It will guide and support local health offices. Hospitals, doctors and emergency services will be linked digitally by 2030. Prevention and help with addiction will also get better.

The new state health office would coordinate local health departments, guarantee statewide standards and be ready for crises. By 2030, inpatient, outpatient and emergency providers are to be digitally networked so that information is available in real time. Emergency care is to be reformed with joint dispatch centers and clear responsibilities in emergency rooms. Together with the new office, hospitals are to be better prepared for pandemics and disasters. The plan also includes low-threshold addiction and drug counseling services and action against the spread of illegal substances.

The CDU wants to improve funding for midwife-led delivery rooms and midwife coordination centers, and to introduce an official state midwife and a midwife registry. At the federal level it wants full pay restored for freelance midwives working in hospitals. Sex-specific differences in medicine are also to receive more attention.

The CDU wants to support midwives better. There will be an official state midwife and a list of all midwives. The list shows who offers which help and where. The CDU also wants to pay more attention to women's health.

The registry would be kept at the planned state health office and record which midwife provides which services in which place. The CDU says this allows needs-based planning. At the federal level it wants the midwife services contract renegotiated so that freelance hospital midwives are fully paid again. Maternity wards in rural areas are to be kept. The so-called gender health gap, meaning unequal health care between the sexes, is to be closed.

The CDU wants to secure every hospital in the state with a fund of 150 million euros a year until the federal hospital reform takes effect. A state investment program is to modernize buildings, digital systems and medical equipment. Hospital planning is to be guided by quality, accessibility and need rather than centralization.

The CDU wants to keep all hospitals in the state. It plans 150 million euros each year for this. The state will also pay for buildings and equipment. Hospitals should stay close to where people live.

The fund is meant to bridge the period until the federal reform takes hold. According to the platform, many hospitals have outdated buildings and equipment because the state is not meeting its duty to invest. Practice clinics are to be expanded as a link between outpatient and inpatient care. A funding program for new approaches in health care would support pilot projects such as short-term nursing care in hospitals. For staff, the platform calls for more positions, flexible shift models and less paperwork.

The CDU wants to raise the number of training places in nursing care by at least a quarter and equip nursing schools digitally. Care workers are to be relieved through simpler procedures and digital record-keeping. Responsibility for care is to be brought together in one ministry.

The CDU wants to train more people for care work. There will be at least one quarter more training places. Care workers should have less paperwork. One single ministry will be in charge of care.

The drive is meant to promote training, return to the profession and recruitment of skilled staff. It includes programs for people re-entering the job and better working conditions, also with the help of robotics and artificial intelligence. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized faster and care workers recruited within the EU. Care responsibilities now spread across several departments would be pooled in one existing ministry. The CDU wants to give providers more leeway on the required share of qualified staff.

The CDU wants to reorganize the state's nursing chamber. It is to represent care workers' interests transparently, but membership is to be voluntary.

The nursing chamber speaks for care workers in the state. Today care workers must be members. The CDU wants to change that. Each care worker should decide whether to join.

The chamber is to be rebuilt as a transparent body representing care workers. The membership requirement would be dropped, so care workers decide for themselves whether to join. According to the platform, they should feel the benefit of taking part. The CDU argues that the chamber should serve care workers rather than rule over them.

The CDU wants to support family caregivers with more counseling, additional respite places and emergency plans. Home care, shared care housing and a pilot project for neighborhood-based care are to strengthen care close to home. Hospice and palliative services are also to grow.

Many people care for relatives at home. The CDU wants to help them more. There will be more places for short-term care and day care. Care in people's own neighborhood should also get better.

At the federal level, the CDU backs care leave models and tax relief for family caregivers. Emergency plans are to secure temporary care when a caregiver suddenly cannot continue. The QuartierPflege (neighborhood care) pilot would link nursing, medical care, social services and neighborly help, and be rolled out statewide step by step if it works. A digital care-place finder would show open places, and funding for care support centers is to be secured long term. The state would pay an investment grant for new hospices and palliative facilities.