Freie Wähler on health and care

The Free Voters want to keep local pharmacies across the state, with online mail order only as a supplement. More medicines are to be produced and stockpiled in Germany and Europe.

The Free Voters want to keep pharmacies close to home. Online shipping should not replace them. More medicines should be made in Germany and Europe. That way there should always be enough medicine.

The program wants to secure the economic viability of pharmacies and opposes strict discount rules and bureaucratic hurdles set by the federal government and health insurers. The training occupations PTA and PKA (pharmacy technical and commercial assistants) are to be strengthened. Pharmacies are to be developed as easy-to-reach contact points for an aging population. The supply of medicines and medical products is to be secured, including through decentralized domestic production. The program also names basic medical care for everyone, especially in rural areas, and more digital health services.

The Free Voters want to keep hospitals, emergency rooms and maternity wards across the whole state and reject the federal government's hospital plans, which they call a clear-cutting. Flat-rate case payments are to be abolished, and more medical school places are to counter the shortage of doctors.

The Free Voters want to keep hospitals everywhere in Bavaria. Small hospitals should stay too. The federal government should provide enough money. There should be more places to study medicine. That way rural areas should have enough doctors too.

Municipal hospitals are to be strengthened and Bavaria's special program for small hospitals expanded. The federal government is to secure funding from tax revenue if necessary. The program calls for ending DRG flat-rate case payments, a "social health insurance" and a central hospital oversight body. To address the shortage of midwives, obstetric care is to be available everywhere. Admission restrictions for medicine and dentistry are to be fundamentally reformed, the rural doctor scholarship raised and the number of study places increased further. A "Gemeindeschwester plus" (community nurse) is to be introduced statewide as an additional care service.

The Free Voters want to improve long-term care significantly, give family caregivers more support and set up an independent professional body for care workers. A mandatory year of community service for everyone is also listed among the care goals.

The Free Voters want to improve care. People who care for relatives at home should get more help and money. Care homes should have more staff. Everyone should have to work for society for one year.

Places for day care, night care and short-term care are to keep growing, as are care support centers across the state. Home care services are to be compensated for higher fuel, energy and material costs. Care at home is to be rewarded better financially. The program calls for better staffing ratios in facilities, including at night, and for "care pools" for crises such as a pandemic. The care scholarship program and the "Pflege-SOS" service are to be expanded, and care professions made more attractive.