FDP on health and care

The FDP supports the federal government's plan to allow the controlled sale of cannabis to adults. Sales are to take place in licensed stores.

The federal government wants to allow cannabis for adults. It should only be sold in special stores. These stores need a license. The FDP in NRW supports this plan.

The platform backs the federal plan. Cannabis is to be sold to adults only. Only licensed stores are to be allowed to sell it.

The FDP wants to implement the reform of hospital planning on the ground. Complex treatments are to be concentrated at suitable sites, duplicate services in urban centers reduced and care in rural areas secured.

The FDP wants to reorganize hospitals. Only especially suitable hospitals should do difficult treatments. In big cities, some services exist twice. That should be reduced. Care in rural areas should stay secure.

The state is to accompany the structural change with targeted investment funding. Hospitals are to cooperate more with each other, with office-based doctors and with rehabilitation clinics. The capacities of rehab clinics, which served as auxiliary hospitals during the pandemic, are to be better included and secured. In underserved areas, municipalities should find it easier to found medical care centers (MVZ). Branch practices and off-site practice rooms should also be possible there with less red tape.

The FDP wants to secure local health care, especially in rural areas, and create more places to study medicine for that purpose. Rural doctor programs are to be stepped up, and career changers moving into family medicine are to receive continued support.

Rural areas lack doctors. The FDP wants more places to study medicine. It wants to strengthen programs for rural doctors. In Bielefeld, students should also be able to study pharmacy.

Beyond the existing state program for family doctors, better conditions for new forms of care and local cooperation are to be created together with the self-governing bodies. Additional study places are planned at Witten/Herdecke University. The medical faculty in Ostwestfalen-Lippe is to grow, including through a pharmacy institute and degree program at Bielefeld University. This is meant to counter the shortage of pharmacists in rural areas and encourage start-ups in the region. Training and continuing education for other health professions are also to be expanded.

The FDP wants to make greater use of digital tools in health care to treat patients more efficiently. This includes the Virtual Hospital, artificial intelligence in diagnosis and digital networking across all areas of care.

The FDP wants more digital technology in medicine. Computer programs should help with diagnosis. Doctors, hospitals and care services should be linked digitally. The data should be secure. Using it should stay voluntary.

The platform also mentions mobile devices in doctors' offices and robotic assistance systems. The medical benefit of digital tools is to be reviewed and their functioning secured through field tests. Data security is meant to create incentives for voluntary use. Standards for data collection and data quality are to be developed with the professional societies. The FDP also wants to expand free, forgery-proof medical documentation and health certificates.

The FDP wants to network local health offices digitally, make them more attractive to young doctors and relieve them of some tasks. A state health office with a rapid response team is to support local offices when needed.

The FDP wants to strengthen public health offices. The offices should work together digitally. Working there should become more attractive for young doctors. A state office should be able to help local offices quickly.

To attract staff, the platform lists longer hiring periods, a separate collective agreement, attractive working-time models and more residency training positions. Medical students should be able to complete clinical clerkships and the elective part of their practical year at a health office. The State Center for Health is to become a state health office with broader powers and a "Rapid Response Force." Medical exams for prospective civil servants are to be handled by selected office-based doctors, as in other states.

The FDP wants to expand preventive care and health promotion for all age groups so that illnesses are avoided or detected early. Waiting times for psychotherapy are also to fall, and mental illness is to be destigmatized.

The FDP wants more preventive health care. Children and teens should get extra checkups. Schools should teach more about health. Adults should go for a checkup every two years. People who need therapy should wait less.

The plans include additional checkups for children and adolescents (U10, U11, J2) and the involvement of dentists and educational institutions. Health education, including mental health, is to get more weight in school curricula. Non-substance addictions such as internet or gambling addiction are to receive more attention. The FDP wants research projects on sex-specific medicine and pharmacy in NRW. For mental illness, public education is to be strengthened and the training of psychological psychotherapists expanded.

The FDP wants to improve working conditions in the rescue services and equip them better digitally. A statewide online system is to show hospitals' free capacity in real time, and urgent care practices are to relieve emergency rooms.

The FDP wants to improve the rescue services. Staff should get better working conditions. An online system should show where hospitals have free capacity. Urgent care practices should be located right at emergency rooms.

The party counts emergency care as an essential public service. It relies on well-trained staff, up-to-date equipment, and digital tools and documentation. Outpatient urgent care practices are to be attached to hospital emergency rooms.

The FDP wants to enable a self-determined and dignified death and improve hospice and palliative care. Doctors who accompany dying patients should not face the threat of punishment.

People should be able to decide for themselves at the end of life. The FDP wants better care for dying people. Doctors should be allowed to accompany the dying. There should be no punishment for this.

Hospice and palliative care are to be further improved. Family doctors are to be linked more closely with outpatient palliative care. The platform rejects criminal sanctions against doctors who accompany dying patients.

The FDP wants to improve working conditions in nursing care to counter staff shortages. Less red tape, better pay, digital technology, more training places and recruiting professionals from abroad are meant to help.

Nursing care lacks skilled workers. The FDP wants to make the job more attractive. Technology and robots should make the work easier. There should be more training places. Care workers from abroad should come too.

The platform lists needs-based staffing levels, performance-based pay, career advancement, reliable shift schedules and workplace health promotion. Electronic patient charts, automated medication dispensing and robotic positioning aids are meant to free up time for personal attention. Former care workers are to be won back through an initiative, and foreign workers through simple credential recognition and language courses. In training, nursing assistant programs as a path to full qualification, rehab clinics as training sites and nursing degree programs are to be expanded. A pilot project for assistance systems in the homes of people needing care is to be examined; all forms of care are to be treated equally and family caregivers given more support.