FDP on health and care

The FDP wants to found a public-law foundation in Hesse that securely stores voluntarily donated health data and releases it for research. This is meant to give research on new treatments and drugs easier access to reliable data.

Researchers need good health data. The FDP wants to create a foundation for this. Patients can donate their data if they want. The foundation protects the data and gives it to researchers.

The data is to be stored in anonymized or pseudonymized form and opened only to an authorized group of users. The platform justifies the foundation by noting that health data is especially sensitive and patients expect a high level of protection. In the FDP's view, differing research clauses in the states' laws make cross-state projects harder. It therefore wants to push in the Bundesrat for more uniform rules on research data.

The FDP wants to make Hesse a pioneer in eHealth and telemedicine and to draw up a digital strategy for the health system. A Hessian eHealth fund would support digital care projects, and the state's competence center for telemedicine and eHealth would take on a more active role.

The FDP wants more digital technology in health care. People should book doctor's appointments online more easily. Rural areas should get more treatment by video. A new fund should support digital projects.

The electronic patient record is to be rolled out widely and actively used, e-prescriptions introduced faster, and the telematics infrastructure upgraded to a "TI 2.0." The eHealth fund would support projects so they can expand regionally and continue after the funding period. Citizens should have control over their data, and mobile devices should replace the health insurance card. The competence center (KTE) would become the contact point for all players, develop pilot projects, and coordinate those involved. The FDP wants to end the split of eHealth responsibilities between two ministries.

The FDP wants to develop Hesse's State Office for Health and Care into a central source of expertise. It is to draw up a statewide prevention strategy, support municipalities with their projects, and push ahead the digitalization of local health departments.

Hesse has a new state office for health and care. The FDP wants to give it more tasks. It should make a plan for preventing illness. It should help cities and counties with their projects.

The office would advise cities and counties that, according to the platform, often lack the expertise and staff for prevention projects. It is to lay the groundwork so that health departments are digitally connected internally, with each other, and with state agencies. The FDP also wants prevention programs for all age groups, easy-to-understand information, and digital tools such as apps or online training. Digital skills would be taught from daycare onward, and vaccinations would be offered with fewer barriers.

The FDP considers the strict separation of outpatient and inpatient care outdated. It wants to work toward a single catalog of services with the same quality standards and the same pay, and to keep medicine as a self-employed liberal profession.

Many treatments can be done in a doctor's office or a hospital. Today the pay for them differs. The FDP wants the same pay for the same service. Doctors should remain an independent profession.

According to the platform, more and more services can be provided either in a practice or in a hospital. Whether treatment is outpatient or inpatient should depend on the patient's condition and the risk of the procedure. The FDP sees the different payment systems in the two sectors as the biggest obstacle. It gives especially high priority to medical care close to where people live.

The FDP wants greater use of video consultations and remote treatment to make up for the shortage of doctors, especially in structurally weak regions. Medical services delivered digitally should be paid like in-person services, and care assistants should take over home visits.

Rural areas often lack doctors. The FDP wants more appointments by video. Doctors should get the same pay for them as in the office. Trained helpers should visit patients at home.

In the FDP's view, the state government's rural doctor quota does not solve the problem, at least not in the short term. According to the platform, video consultations suit cases such as minor illnesses, sick notes, or repeat prescriptions. Care assistants would carry out routine checks and advice in patients' homes and consult doctors by video when needed. Non-physician staff would be trained so that the quality of treatment does not suffer.

The FDP calls for the creation of Gesundheits-Versorgungs-Zentren (GVZ, health care centers) to secure care, especially in rural areas. They would bring doctors and other health providers together under one roof and serve as a contact point for the public.

The FDP wants new health centers in rural areas. Doctors work together there. Pharmacies and care services can be there too. People then have one place for all health questions.

The centers would be set up in agreement with the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung (association of statutory health insurance physicians) and serve a defined catchment area. The physicians' unit inside would operate as an economically independent entity, and branch offices are possible for remote areas. The FDP expects part-time and team work to make rural areas more attractive to young doctors. Pharmacies, physical therapy, home care, and social services would also be located there.

The FDP wants a reform of the hospital landscape that is geared more closely to need and quality of care. In addition to per-case flat rates, hospitals should be reimbursed for the cost of keeping capacity available, but first it must be decided which hospitals with which services are needed.

The FDP wants to reorganize hospitals. It should be clear which hospital is needed where. Fixed quality rules should apply. Hospitals should also get money for keeping services ready.

The FDP believes the per-case payment system has proven itself in principle but creates false incentives, as hospitals have sharply increased their case numbers. It says this is made worse by the state providing too little money for investment. Equipment and specialization are to be decisive when determining need. Binding requirements on structure and quality would become part of the state's hospital planning.

The FDP wants to firmly establish the priority of outpatient over inpatient care so that people can be cared for at home as long as possible. Alternative forms of housing are to be supported and outpatient palliative services expanded statewide.

People should be cared for at home as long as possible. The FDP also wants to support shared homes as an option instead of a nursing home. There should be less red tape for them. Dying people should get good care at home everywhere.

For private shared-living groups, the legal rules would be changed so that outpatient care is possible with less bureaucracy and lower requirements for operators. Specialized outpatient palliative care (SAPV) should be available everywhere in networked teams so that people can die at home without pain. The FDP also wants to support care networks in which medical, nursing, and palliative care work together.

The FDP wants to reduce bureaucracy and documentation in nursing care and to digitalize its processes. This is meant to give caregivers more time for the people they look after.

Caregivers have to write down a lot. That takes time away from patients. The FDP wants less paperwork and more digital technology. Caregivers should learn to use it in their training.

According to the platform, caregivers spend around 13 percent of their working time on documentation. Besides leaner, digital processes, the FDP calls for digital billing and technical aids such as networked medical devices, lifting and carrying aids, wearables, and monitoring for people with dementia. It wants to examine whether long-term care insurance can pay for smart-home technology as a home adaptation. Digital skills would be taught in training and continuing education, and new professions such as nursing informatics specialist would be developed.

The FDP wants to tackle the staff shortage in nursing care with better working conditions, more training and recruitment of workers from abroad. In the medium term, care facilities should keep at least 105 percent of the staff they need so that duty rosters are reliable.

There are not enough care workers. The FDP wants to make care jobs better. Care homes should have a little more staff than they strictly need. Then fewer shifts get canceled. Care workers from other countries should also come.

The platform backs immediate measures: a training and continuing education drive, incentives to move from part-time to full-time work, and a program to bring back care workers who have left the profession. It also calls for health care for staff to counter physical and mental strain, and for reliable duty rosters. Family-friendly working hours and more and better childcare are meant to relieve care professionals. For recruitment abroad, the FDP points to an immigration law, and it supports programs that bring refugees into care jobs.

The FDP wants to improve midwife care in Hesse and secure basic care for all pregnant women across the state. To do so, conditions should improve above all for freelance midwives.

Hesse does not have enough midwives. Midwives help women before, during and after birth. The FDP wants every pregnant woman to find a midwife anywhere in the state. Midwives should get better conditions for their work.

The platform notes a shortage of midwives for postnatal care. Better conditions are explicitly meant to apply to freelance midwives as well. The FDP names as its goal that parents can continue to choose freely how the birth takes place.

The FDP wants to develop and fund pilot projects that let people with dementia live independently for as long as possible. They are meant to offer an alternative to conventional care in a nursing home.

People with dementia forget more and more. The FDP wants to fund new projects for them. They should shape their own daily life for a long time. The projects should be another option besides the nursing home.

According to the platform, the abilities that patients still have should continue to be challenged and strengthened. Those affected should have a say in their daily lives as far as possible. The FDP wants to consult experts in developing the projects.

The FDP wants enough qualified treatment facilities for people with addictions, drop-in centers close to the drug scene, and the continued existence of low-threshold help for the most severely addicted. Education and counseling should get special support so that treatment is needed less often.

The FDP wants enough help for people with addictions. There should be drop-in centers where these people are. Survival help for heavily addicted people should stay. Education and counseling matter most to the FDP.

Centers close to the drug scene are meant to advise on therapy and provide medical care. Acceptance-based facilities, which help the most severely addicted survive and can open the way to later therapy, should remain. Drug and addiction policy should adapt to new forms; the platform names synthetic drugs such as crystal meth, internet and gambling addiction, and binge drinking. According to the platform, the number of people affected has risen in recent years.

The FDP supports the federal government's course toward controlled distribution of cannabis and wants pilot projects for it in Hesse. It bases this on health and youth protection, saying cannabis on the illegal market is often contaminated.

The FDP supports controlled sales of cannabis. That means adults get cannabis legally and it is checked. Hesse should run test projects for this. The FDP says this protects health and keeps young people away from the illegal market.

The pilot projects in Hesse are meant to carry out and evaluate controlled distribution. Young people should still be kept away from cannabis and be better reached by prevention and support services. In the FDP's view, controlled distribution lowers the risk that young people come into contact with crime and addictive substances. The party also wants to push at the federal level for a commission of inquiry that works with experts on a science-based realignment of drug policy.

The FDP wants to connect digital health services through open standards and make prescriptions, documentation and billing fully digital. For home care, robotics and digital assistance systems would be promoted.

The FDP wants more digital tools in medicine and care. Prescriptions and billing should be digital. Doctors' offices and care homes should get fast internet first. Robots should help people who are cared for at home.

Hospitals, doctors' offices, care facilities, therapy practices and pharmacies would get priority in the fiber-optic rollout. Medical school and vocational training would teach how to work with IT, data, algorithms and AI. Health insurers should be able to communicate with members entirely digitally. The FDP supports voluntary release of anonymized health data and a foundation to hold it. It wants to examine whether long-term care insurance can pay for digital aids for home care, and to create new additional qualifications in the skilled trades and computer science.