Grüne on health and care

The Greens want everyone in Berlin to be able to eat healthy, sustainable food regardless of income, and they regard nutrition as part of basic public services. To that end, Berlin's food strategy is to be developed further and meals in public institutions are to become healthier, more plant-based and more regional.

The Greens want good food for everyone in Berlin. Money should not matter for this. Food in schools, daycare centers and cafeterias will get healthier. There will be more vegetables and more food from the region. Drinking water will be free in public buildings.

The standards of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) are to be binding for communal catering, and guests are to be involved on a mandatory basis. Vegan and culturally sensitive dishes are to be a regular part of the menu. The "Kantine Zukunft" initiative is to be funded permanently as an advisory and competence center. Tenders for school meals are to be reformed, school kitchens built where possible, and a nutrition plan developed for secondary schools. In addition, there is to be free drinking water in public institutions and "LebensMittelPunkte", open neighborhood places for regional food and shared meals.

The Greens want health care for women and FLINTA* that is available across Berlin and free of discrimination. This includes more specialized and multilingual services, free menstrual products in public buildings and a menopause strategy.

The Greens want better health care for women. No one should be treated unfairly. Every district should have gynecologists. Pads and tampons should be free in public buildings. There should also be more help during menopause.

The platform wants to address multiple discrimination, for example through racism, hostility toward disabled or queer people, or a lack of interpreting. It plans additional pregnancy conflict counseling centers and wants abortion to be covered in medical training. Schools and youth facilities are to offer broader education on menstruation and contraception. There are to be more free, accessible public restrooms. A menopause strategy is planned for the Berlin administration, and every district is to have enough gynecology and urology practices, with attention to trans*, non-binary and disabled people.

The Greens want doctors' practices spread more evenly across the districts and new neighborhoods to be well served from the start. An urban health strategy is meant to link care and prevention more closely. The platform justifies this with unequal health prospects depending on where people live and their social situation.

Some parts of Berlin do not have enough doctors. This is mostly at the edge of the city. The Greens want to spread doctors' offices more fairly. New neighborhoods should also get enough doctors. The public health office should become stronger.

According to the platform, general practitioners, specialists and pediatricians are lacking mainly on the outskirts and in some eastern districts. The Greens want binding cooperation between health care, social services, education, youth services, and environmental, transport and urban planning. This is meant to build prevention chains and neighborhood-level health structures. The public health service, which the platform describes as underfunded, is to be strengthened. The guiding principle is prevention before outpatient care, and outpatient before inpatient care.

The Greens want to create health centers throughout Berlin that combine medical treatment, therapy, psychosocial support and prevention in one place. In addition, Community Health Nurses are to work in every district.

The Greens want new health centers all over Berlin. There you find doctors, therapy and advice in one place. The teams should speak several languages. Special nurses should work in every district. They help people in the neighborhood.

The centers are to be staffed by different professions and operate as a diverse, multilingual network. Their services should range from health counseling to a pharmacy. The Köpenick district serves as the model for the Community Health Nurse. These nurses are to support people together with the public health service.

The Greens want to use the federal hospital reform and its transformation fund to modernize and digitalize Berlin's hospitals. Emergency care is to be developed further, including through integrated emergency centers. Data on treatment quality is to be published again.

The Greens want to make Berlin's hospitals more modern. They want to use federal money for this. There should be new centers for emergencies. Office doctors and hospitals work together there. Everyone should be able to read how well a hospital treats people.

The basis is to be a target vision geared to the needs of the population. The platform treats top-level university medicine and neighborhood care as complementary. Hospitals are also to be made greener under a green hospital approach. Reports with transparency data are to appear again, be expanded and be public for each hospital site. Integrated emergency centers are to be located at easily reachable hospital sites, where the statutory physicians' emergency practice and the hospital emergency room jointly direct patients.

The Greens want to use digital services, telemedicine and artificial intelligence as an easily accessible complement to care. To that end, the digital equipment of health care facilities is to be expanded. Digital self-determination and participation are to be preserved.

The Greens want more digital health services. One example is telemedicine. That means doctor and patient talk by video or phone. Doctors' offices and hospitals should get better technology. Care should stay good.

The platform regards telemedicine as important for coping with demographic change. The quality of care is to remain high. The Greens want to push for rules that are ethically acceptable, legally clear and medically sensible. Digital services are meant to support existing ones.

The Greens want to implement Berlin's heat action plan and enable hospitals, care homes, schools and sports facilities to draw up their own heat protection plans. The platform calls the climate crisis a health crisis, with heat so far being its strongest effect in Berlin.

Heat is dangerous for health. This is especially true for old and sick people and for children. The Greens want to help hospitals, care homes, schools and sports facilities. They should make their own plans against heat. New heat protection alliances should form in the districts.

The Aktionsbündnis Hitzeschutz Berlin (Berlin heat protection alliance) is to be strengthened and complemented by local alliances in the districts. Experience from the districts' heat action plans is to be used. In public service facilities and public spaces, plans including drinking water, shade and cooling rooms are to be put into practice. The public and medical staff are to learn more about health effects of climate change such as new infectious diseases and allergies.

The Greens want to expand easily accessible outreach and crisis services for people with mental illness in all districts. Psychiatric facilities are to receive more staff and funding so that waiting times fall. Additional services are planned for children and young people.

The Greens want more help for people with mental illness. Every district should offer help in a crisis. Psychiatric clinics should get more money and staff. That way people wait less for help. Schools should have more psychologists.

Outpatient, day-clinic and inpatient services are to be linked; the forensic psychiatric system is to be strengthened and tied in with general psychiatry. Together with the Berlin association of statutory health insurance physicians, guidance and referral services for psychotherapy are to grow. For young people, the platform plans more school psychologists and school social workers as well as outreach youth psychiatry teams. It foresees fixed budgets, multi-professional crisis teams and systematically anchored suicide prevention. The children's helpline "Nummer gegen Kummer" is to be kept permanently.

The Greens want people without health insurance or residence papers to receive medical care as well. The health system is to be free of discrimination, and services are to be culturally sensitive and offer interpreting.

Some people have no health insurance. Some have no residence papers. The Greens want them to be able to see a doctor too. There should be help with translation. Homeless people should also get better care.

The Clearingstelle, an office that advises uninsured people, is to be strengthened. Health services are to be built into homeless facilities and Housing First programs. The Greens want to promote diversity- and racism-sensitive research and bring its findings into the training of health staff. A vaccination campaign is also planned. Particular attention goes to care for refugees.

The Greens want to bring counseling, hospice and palliative services together in a new strategy and develop them further. At the federal level, they want a law that protects the right to a self-determined death and regulates assisted suicide. They refer to the Federal Constitutional Court.

The Greens want better help for people at the end of life. Hospices care for dying people. These services should be close to home. The federal government should also pass a law on help with suicide. No one should be under pressure.

The hospice and palliative strategy is to follow the principle that outpatient services close to home take priority over inpatient ones. In the platform's view, a life in dignity includes a death in dignity. People should be able to exercise the right to a self-determined death free from pressure. The federal rules demanded are to protect this right while regulating assisted suicide.

The Greens want to create a network of midwife services across Berlin, especially in districts that are poorly served so far. Delivery rooms are to get more staff, and midwife-led delivery rooms are to become the norm in hospitals.

Midwives help before, during and after birth. The Greens want more midwife services all over Berlin. More staff should work in delivery rooms. Midwives should lead delivery rooms in hospitals. The degree program for midwives should get lasting funding.

The planned network includes birth centers, home-visit care and services close to where people live. The degree program in applied midwifery science is to be funded permanently. Better staffing is meant to make working conditions for midwives more attractive. According to the platform, the aim is for everyone to have access to safe and self-determined births.

The Greens want state-owned hospitals to provide abortions and push at the federal level for more liberal abortion law. Young people are to get contraceptives free of charge. Health insurers are to pay for fertility treatment for everyone, regardless of relationship status.

The Greens want people to decide freely about having children. State-owned hospitals should offer abortions. Young people should get contraceptives for free. Health insurance should pay for fertility treatment for everyone. This should also apply to single people.

Counseling for pregnancy conflicts is to be easy to reach and offered in several languages. Reproductive medicine is to be expanded. Counseling on fertility is to grow and be extended especially to rainbow families. Early, age-appropriate sex education is also part of the plan.

The Greens want to introduce a state law on prevention that defines the state's responsibilities. Health information is to be easier to understand and available in more languages. Measures are to be developed against health misinformation online.

Preventing illness is better than getting sick. That is what the Greens think. They want a new law for prevention in Berlin. Health information should be in easy language. It should also be in other languages. The Greens want to act against false information online.

The platform calls prevention the most effective health measure. Information is to be available in easy-to-read and plain language as well as in further languages for all stages of life. According to the platform, health disinformation spreads mainly in the digital sphere.

The Greens want to draw up a prevention strategy for all of Berlin and involve residents in the process. It includes easy-to-reach vaccinations, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and more options for healthy eating and exercise. According to the platform, common diseases can be reduced considerably through prevention.

The Greens want to stop illness early. Berlin should get one shared plan for this. People in Berlin should have a say. Vaccines should be available close to home. Children should be able to eat well and be active.

All vaccinations recommended by STIKO (Germany's Standing Committee on Vaccination) should be available close to home, for example in pharmacies, at the public health service, and through mobile teams. To meet the Fast-Track Cities goals on HIV and AIDS by 2030, the Greens want to launch an action plan, close gaps in prevention and testing, and secure counseling services. Communal catering, nutrition education, and sports programs are to be strengthened across the city. The platform also counts clean indoor air in public buildings such as schools and health facilities as part of prevention.

The Greens want to make health conferences mandatory in every borough and anchor health promotion in all policy areas. The public health service (ÖGD) is to get more staff and funding. A fixed quota of university places at the Charité is planned for future doctors in public service.

Every borough should get a health conference. There, people discuss what the area needs. The public health offices should get more money and staff. The Charité hospital should keep study places for future public health doctors.

The boroughs are to link up with one another and with Brandenburg to form health regions. Health promotion is to be mandatory in daycare centers, schools, workplaces, and facilities for older people, with a focus on exercise, nutrition, addiction prevention, and mental health. Binding quality standards are to apply to all measures, and their implementation is to be evaluated. Small and medium-sized businesses are to get support with workplace health promotion. The ÖGD is to recruit new staff across all professions; according to the platform, the so-called city doctor quota at the Charité follows the example of other German states.

The Greens want more drug consumption rooms, more street outreach, and shorter waits for therapy. Help should not depend on a person giving up drugs. The platform points to rising numbers of drug deaths and the aim of solving problems rather than moving them elsewhere.

The Greens want to help people with addiction more. There should be more rooms for safer drug use. More social workers should help on the street. People should wait less for therapy. Help should not require quitting drugs first.

The plan calls for a citywide strategy that combines self-determination, education, and health protection. Prevention is to be expanded in multiple languages and in ways that fit age, culture, and gender, especially for young people in schools and youth work and through digital counseling. In the Kurfürstenkiez neighborhood, night cafés and additional consumption rooms are to be secured. Homeless drug users are to get stable housing first under the Housing First approach, with particular attention to women. In prisons, the platform favors substitution and therapy, including diamorphine treatment and care after release, over drug-sniffing dogs.

The Greens want to greatly enlarge Berlin's drug-checking service because, according to the platform, demand exceeds supply. It is also to operate on a mobile basis and be linked to a citywide warning system for dangerous substances. The emergency drug naloxone is to be available through addiction services and social work.

Drug checking means people have their drugs tested in a lab. They learn if dangerous substances are in them. The Greens want to make this service much bigger. There should also be mobile testing. A warning system should alert people to dangerous substances.

The platform sees drug checking as an important way to reduce harm from drug use. Since the project began, demand has been well above capacity, it says. The early warning system is to inform all of Berlin about dangerous substances. Naloxone, a medication that counters opioid overdoses, is to be handed out by recognized addiction and social work services.

The Greens want to sharply limit gambling advertising and make financial checks and fixed deposit limits the norm in online gambling. Counseling for alcohol and medication dependence is to be coordinated at the state level. Protection of non-smokers in public spaces is to be enforced more strictly and, if needed, tightened by law.

The Greens want fewer ads for gambling. Online gambling should have fixed limits on deposits. Help for alcohol addiction should be equally good across Berlin. Non-smokers should be better protected.

Behavioral addictions such as gambling or gaming addiction are to become a regular part of support services. The player exclusion register "Oasis" is to be extended to cover gambling-like features in digital products as well. According to the platform, alcohol and medication counseling in the boroughs is uneven and insufficient; central coordination is meant to secure coverage and funding. On protecting non-smokers, the platform points to other European countries that it says are further ahead.

The Greens want to make Berlin a pilot region where cannabis is dispensed legally. They also want to cut red tape for cultivation clubs. The platform calls the federal Konsumcannabisgesetz (cannabis law) the right step and wants to replace the black market with legal supply channels.

People in Berlin should be able to get cannabis legally. This should start as a test. Growing clubs should face less paperwork. The Greens want to end illegal dealing this way.

According to the platform, partial legalization has eased the load on police and courts, and use has not risen sharply. The Greens want to continue on this path. Legal supply channels are to be controlled, safe in health terms, and socially acceptable. A modern drug policy must not play down risks, the platform says, but needs workable rules and pragmatic solutions.

The Greens want to set up a Pflegekammer (nursing chamber) to represent nurses and nursing assistants as their own elected professional body. Without it, the platform says, nursing professions remain underrepresented on state-level bodies. After the start-up phase, its effectiveness is to be reviewed.

Nurses should get their own representation. It is called a nursing chamber. Nurses elect it themselves. The chamber speaks for them in politics. Later, there should be a check on how well it works.

The chamber is to draw up rules for continuing education and support needs planning. It is also to keep a central register of its members. The platform sees this as a contribution to reliable care, including in crises and disasters. The Greens tie the demand to the goal of good working conditions, fair pay, and a real say for nursing staff.

The Greens want to secure union-scale pay, predictable hours, and binding staffing levels in nursing. Training is to be brought together on one campus and expanded. In addition, skilled workers from abroad are to be recruited under fair rules and have their qualifications recognized faster.

Nurses should get union-scale pay. Their working hours should be reliable. There should be fixed rules for enough staff. Training should happen in one shared place. Nurses from other countries should be recruited fairly.

The sites of Berlin's Bildungscampus für Gesundheitsberufe (training campus for health professions) are to be merged so that nursing and therapy professions such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy train together. The number of university places is to be adjusted and training capacity for nursing assistants increased. At the federal level, the Greens want nurses to be allowed to perform and bill for more tasks on their own. For recruitment abroad, the platform backs the "Faire Anwerbung in der Pflege" (fair recruitment in nursing) seal, along with enough language courses and better-staffed digital recognition procedures.

The Greens want to mention family caregivers in Berlin's constitution and give them more relief. Plans include a citywide care emergency hotline, better-funded support services, and a push at the federal level for wage-replacement pay. The platform argues that relatives carry most of the burden of care.

Many people care for relatives at home. The Greens want to help them more. They should be named in Berlin's constitution. An emergency phone line should help fast in a crisis. Caregivers should get money to replace lost wages.

The care emergency hotline is to serve as a central point that gives advice in acute crises, refers callers to services, and arranges short-term help when needed. Existing services such as "Kontaktstellen PflegeEngagement," "Pflege 4.0," and "Pflege in Not" are to be kept and developed further. Relatives are to be included in care planning and the care network. Schools are to be made aware that children and teenagers also care for family members. A pact with Berlin employers is planned to make it easier to combine caregiving and work.

The Greens want to pass a Landespflegegesetz (state care law) that governs the state's care services and requires binding needs planning. More places for day, night, and short-term care are to be created in all boroughs. The platform notes that care places are unevenly spread and especially scarce in the outer boroughs.

Berlin should get its own care law. The state should plan how much care is really needed. Every borough should get more care places. Advice centers should be close by everywhere.

The state care structure plan is to determine actual need and take family caregivers into account. According to the platform, care should be self-determined, close to home, inclusive, and culturally sensitive, and remain affordable, both at home and in facilities. Pflegestützpunkte (care support centers) are to be developed further as points of contact across the city. This includes more digital and phone counseling as well as home visits.

The Greens want to establish community health nurses in Berlin as an additional pillar of care. These professionals would give advice, make home visits and connect the various services in a neighborhood. Applications for Hilfe zur Pflege (care assistance benefits) would also become faster and more digital.

The Greens want a new kind of care worker in Berlin. They are called community health nurses. They give advice on health and care. They also visit people at home. Applying for care assistance should become faster.

Community health nurses would advise on health and care, visit people at home and link up doctors, care support centers, social services and neighborhood initiatives. The platform expects this to improve health literacy and care, especially for disadvantaged groups. For care assistance benefits, applications would be simplified, digital procedures expanded and care support centers closely involved. Mobile care services would become climate-friendly, and facilities that are accessible and adapted to the climate would receive funding. So that people needing care can stay at home longer, the platform calls for more accessible apartments through conversion and new construction, plus more prevention such as fall prevention.

The Greens want care to reflect the diversity of Berlin's population and would make training on this mandatory. At the same time, the state's care commissioner would gain more influence, partly to counter violence in care settings.

The Greens want care that fits all people. Care workers should take required training on this. There should be more advice for queer people. Berlin's care commissioner should have a say in new laws. Violence in care should be fought.

The use of intercultural bridge-builders and counseling geared to LGBTIQ* people would be expanded. Training on diversity-sensitive care would be anchored in the continuing education regulations. The platform opposes violence experienced by people in need of care and by caregivers, attributing it to overload, structural shortcomings and power imbalances. The care commissioner would safeguard complaint channels, uncover problems and be systematically involved in all state legislation on care. Her role would go beyond writing reports.

The Greens want to recruit more paramedics and create a separate career track for the emergency medical service. A round table is to link the service with health care, and crisis intervention teams are to be introduced. The party rejects lowering medical standards.

People who call 112 should get the right help. The Greens want to hire more trained staff for the ambulance service. There should be special teams for people in a mental crisis. People seeking help should reach the right place faster. Medical quality should not go down.

The "Rettungsdienst" round table is meant to ensure that people seeking help reach the right place, such as the emergency room, a family doctor, the on-call medical service or crisis services. Crisis intervention teams are to help mainly in calls with a psychosocial background. The program demands that the federal level deliver its emergency care reform so that the service is no longer paid merely as transport. Patient routing is also to account for acute nursing needs and mental health crises.