CDU on health and care

The CDU wants to give the Heimaufsicht (care home supervisory authority) more staff and turn it into a modern, digitally working agency. It is to advise care homes more and work in dialogue with them in order to secure the quality of care over the long term.

The Heimaufsicht checks care homes. The CDU wants to hire more staff there. The agency should work digitally. It should not only inspect homes but also advise them more.

The platform sets the goal of having Germany's most modern and most digital care home oversight. Besides inspection and supervision, the agency is to advise more and seek dialogue with the facilities, which the CDU says builds trust and raises quality of life in the homes. The CDU also wants staff to stay long-term and build up expertise over time. Digital work is meant to bring transparency and efficiency.

The CDU wants to link outpatient and inpatient care more closely, redesign hospital planning and set up a medical care center in every municipality. It pledges 840 million euros in investment funding over 15 years. The platform presents this as a lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDU wants to reorganize care by doctors and hospitals. Every municipality should have a medical center. Practices and hospitals should work together digitally. The state should provide 840 million euros over 15 years.

The plan is a tiered care concept that uses telemedicine and digital networking. The care centers are to provide basic outpatient and day-patient care along with emergency and first-response care, and be connected to general practitioners, specialists and hospitals. Hospital planning is to become cross-sector, flexible and oriented toward quality and staffing. People in cities and rural areas are to get prompt initial treatment and, in an emergency, be taken quickly to an inpatient center. The CDU also backs maternity wards close to home and a reliable network of midwives.

The CDU wants to continue and increase funding for rural doctors and new practices, and create more university places in medicine and dentistry. The goal is at least one family doctor in every municipality and care close to home across the state.

Rural areas often lack doctors. The CDU wants to support doctors who open a practice there. There should also be more places to study medicine. Every municipality should have at least one family doctor.

According to the platform, 300,000 euros went into the rural doctor program and scholarships for future rural doctors by the end of 2021; both are to continue with more money. General practitioners, specialists and dentists are to be attracted to rural areas, and starting or taking over a practice is to become easier. The family doctor program is meant to bring young physicians into the municipalities. More places for medicine and dentistry are to be created at Saarland University and its university hospital.

The CDU wants to introduce medium-term planning of training facilities for non-academic health professions, based on a needs analysis. The reason given is new legal rules for these training programs, which place higher demands on schools, teachers and trainees.

Training for nursing and other health jobs has changed. The CDU wants to plan exactly how many training places the state needs. Further training should be included too. Intensive care nursing is especially important.

The platform mentions the generalist nursing qualification, the dual-study midwifery degree and new training programs for anesthesia and surgical technical assistants and for medical technologists. The needs analysis is also to cover specialist further training. Particular weight goes to intensive care nursing, whose importance the CDU says became clear in the pandemic. Additional training formats are to be developed for fields such as pain therapy and geriatric psychiatry.

The CDU wants to centralize procurement and storage for Saarland's hospitals and expand a central warehouse for this purpose. In addition, the public health service is to get more staff and digital technology and be permanently linked with disaster response.

The CDU wants the state to be better prepared for crises like a pandemic. Hospitals should buy and store supplies together. There should be one large warehouse for this. Public health offices should get more staff and better technology.

The central warehouse is to be built at Saarland University or within a network of hospital operators, and be up to date in logistics, technology and digital systems. This is meant to let the state respond quickly to pandemics or other medical emergencies. The public health service is to be developed in staffing, structure and digital tools under the existing pact for that service. Its systems are to be permanently connected with those of disaster response.

The CDU wants to develop a strategy for digital patient care together with IT companies and research institutions based in Saarland. It considers a partial reassessment of data protection in health care necessary so that digital services are practical and user-friendly.

Doctors, hospitals and others should work together digitally. The CDU wants to make a plan for this. Companies and researchers from Saarland should help. Some data protection rules should be reviewed.

According to the platform, the future health system is to work in a networked way and bring all participants together digitally as well. The strategy is to be created in Saarland and for Saarland, involving all key players. On data protection, the CDU names two goals: the highest security for sensitive data and, at the same time, ease of use in everyday practice.

The CDU wants to improve conditions in long-term care for staff, people in need of care and their relatives, including through higher pay, flexible working hours and more responsibility for nurses. New job profiles, such as a dual assistant training in Heilerziehungspflege (care for people with disabilities), are meant to bring in more skilled workers.

More and more people need care. The CDU wants care workers to get more pay and better working hours. There should be new training programs. Relatives who care for someone at home should also get relief.

The CDU calls on the federal government to deliver better pay and reliable working hours, and wants Saarland's model of nursing assistant training recognized nationwide. Care workers are to be given more tasks of responsibility, relieved of non-care work, and offered more further training and digital tools. For home care, the party wants to examine a minimum wage for foreign care workers and give them a legally secure status. A new paid, on-the-job training as an assistant in disability care is to allow advancement to full professional status. In addition, a care infrastructure report is to determine the need for staff, space, and short-term and day-care places.

The CDU wants drug policy to keep focusing on education and prevention and does not want drug use to be played down. At the same time, counseling and treatment are to grow, a substitution center is to be set up, and a pilot project for testing drugs is to start in Saarbrücken.

The CDU wants to warn and inform people about drugs. It wants more counseling and treatment for people with addictions. A new center is to give substitute medication to people who are dependent. In Saarbrücken, people should be able to have drugs checked for special dangers.

Prevention is to be offered statewide and especially reach children from families affected by addiction. A network backed by the state is to bring together providers of homelessness services and addiction services. Together with counseling providers, the CDU wants to find easy-access work opportunities for people with addictions. Special housing options and a daily-structure program are also to be supported and open to people with gambling addiction. The pilot project at the drug help center is meant to prevent severe health damage from especially dangerous substances.

The CDU wants to build shared health care structures with neighboring regions so that treatment is possible on both sides of the border. An interregional crisis and pandemic task force is to coordinate action in emergencies, and rescue services are to cooperate across the border.

Diseases do not stop at borders. So the CDU wants to work more closely with the neighbors. Sick people should be able to get treatment on both sides of the border. A shared crisis team should plan for emergencies and pandemics. Fire and rescue services should also help across the border.

The MOSAR agreement between Saarland and the French department of Moselle is to cover more medical conditions and allow treatment close to home. An expert panel of health administrators, hospitals and insurers is to work with the neighbors to collect legal and insurance-related obstacles and propose solutions. The crisis team is to align hygiene plans, situation assessments and pandemic plans for the Greater Region. Following the model of air rescue cooperation with Luxembourg, fire and rescue services are to be coordinated across borders.