Grüne on health and care

The Greens want to keep implementing and evaluating the heat action plan completed in 2024. More public drinking fountains and temporary cooling centers in public buildings are to be added. The platform justifies this with the health risk heat poses to especially vulnerable groups.

Extreme heat is dangerous for people's health. Hamburg has a plan to protect people from heat. The Greens want to keep carrying out this plan. There should be more drinking fountains. During extreme heat, cool rooms should be open to everyone.

The platform names older people, people with pre-existing conditions, people living alone, homeless people, small children, pregnant women and those who have to be outdoors a lot as especially at risk. The accompanying heat protection network is to continue its work. The cooling centers are to be open to everyone during extreme heat waves.

The Greens want to add a health examination to the mandatory assessment of young children at elementary schools. It would cover development, vision and hearing. The aim is above all to reach children who have no pediatrician.

Young children come to the elementary school for a check. The Greens want to look at their health too. Experts check development, eyes and ears. This helps children who have no children's doctor.

The check would include a developmental assessment and tests of vision and hearing. Children without a pediatrician would be identified. The school medical service would refer them onward or treat them itself.

Given the growing number of students with mental illness, the Greens want to set up care close to schools. The school health professionals project would be expanded with city funding. The program treats health as a key precondition for successful learning.

More and more students have mental health problems. The Greens want help close to schools. There should be more health staff in schools. The city should pay for this. Teachers should get more training on it.

Care near schools would be developed within school development plans together with the relevant authorities and the association of statutory health insurance physicians. Teacher training on intercultural and psychological topics would be expanded, and first points of contact such as the 'Aktionsbündnis seelische Gesundheit' strengthened. School health professionals work at elementary schools with a low social index; the project would be developed further in light of the expected nursing competence law, for example in supporting chronically ill children.

The Greens want to introduce binding municipal planning of long-term care needs that is organized by neighborhood. Everyone who needs care should find services that match their needs.

The Greens want to plan care better. The city should know what help is missing in each neighborhood. Family and neighbors should be able to help with care. Family caregivers should get more advice.

The QplusAlter guide system, which relies on helping people help themselves, is to be offered across all of Hamburg. A pilot project is planned for home care modeled on the Dutch "Buurtzorg" approach, which involves family, friends and neighbors. Care support centers are to visit family caregivers at home more often to advise them. Facilities that are attuned to LGBTIQ* people are to get a seal in the Pflegekompass care directory. Hospital staff, especially in emergency rooms, are to be routinely trained in dealing with dementia patients.

The Greens want general practitioners, pediatricians and low-threshold contact points to be within reach in every part of the city. Access to basic care should not depend on where people live or how mobile they are.

The Greens want doctors' offices in every part of the city. The way to a family doctor or children's doctor should be short. There should also be health centers and advice nearby. The public health office should be strengthened.

Depending on local conditions, this includes primary care centers such as the Poliklinik Veddel, district health centers, health kiosks and pharmacies. At the federal level, the party wants patients to be able to see who owns a practice or medical care center; the reason given is concern about profit-driven medicine. The public health service is to be strengthened so it can reliably carry out tasks such as infection control, hygiene and school entry examinations.

The Greens want to use legislation to ensure that all children take part in preventive checkups. Mothers and families are to be better cared for through outreach services and more midwives.

The Greens want all children to go to their health checkups. Families get invitations in several languages. Mothers and families should get more help. For that, there should be more midwives.

Legal foundations are planned for an expanded binding invitation and reporting system and for handling missed appointments. Invitations are to become easier to understand and multilingual in order to reduce language barriers. Follow-up diagnostics and therapy are to be available for all children. Baby guides, maternal counseling and family teams are to work together citywide, following the model tested in Harburg. Qualification programs are to make it easier for midwives to return to the profession.

The Greens want to expand interpreting services in doctors' offices and hospitals and get them established as a statutory benefit at the federal level. In addition, practices are to become barrier-free, and people without health insurance and homeless people are to get better care.

The Greens want everyone to be able to talk with their doctor. For that, there should be more interpreters in practices and hospitals. Practices should be reachable without obstacles. People without health insurance should get help. There should be a regular practice for homeless people.

Together with the association of statutory health insurance physicians and the health insurers, the party wants to work toward barrier-free care, especially in gynecological practices. It wants to examine whether Hamburg can become a nationwide hub for group therapy services in sign language. The Clearingstelle, which clarifies the entitlements of uninsured people and also advises anonymously, and the fund for emergency treatment are to be financially secured and expanded. For homeless people, there is to be at least one easily reachable practice with regular opening hours in addition to mobile services.

The Greens want to create a site for research and treatment of post-viral illnesses such as ME/CFS at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. In addition, a competence center for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is to be set up.

The Greens want to help people with long-term effects after infections. The university hospital should do research and treat them. There should also be a center for FASD. FASD is a disability caused by alcohol during pregnancy.

According to the platform, care for people with long-term effects, for example after Covid-19, is unsatisfactory in many places. Training for doctors in this field is to take priority, and the party is in talks with the association of statutory health insurance physicians about this. A schooling option is to be developed for students with long-term illness. The FASD competence center is to work across disciplines and involve the UKE, because those affected often struggle with daily life.

As part of hospital reform, the Greens want to work with hospitals on further specialization and transparent quality. Outpatient and inpatient care are to be more closely linked, above all through integrated emergency centers across Hamburg.

The Greens want to keep improving hospitals. Hospitals should specialize in certain tasks. They should get enough money. There should be emergency centers across the city. Doctors' offices and hospitals work together there.

The party advocates adequate hospital funding at all levels. Investment funding is to include incentives for more sustainability. According to the platform, the emergency centers require federal rules and cooperation between hospitals and the association of statutory health insurance physicians. The party sees the variety of Hamburg's hospitals, from maximum-care providers to basic care in the neighborhoods, as a strength.

The Greens want to tighten Hamburg's law on protection from secondhand smoke. Exceptions for smoking in restaurants and bars are to be dropped, and outdoor seating areas and transit stops are also to become smoke-free.

The Greens want less smoking in public places. Smoking should no longer be allowed in restaurants and bars at all. That also applies outside restaurants and bars. Smoking should also be banned at transit stops.

The party justifies the plan by saying that consistent protection from secondhand smoke is active health protection. The reform covers three areas: the existing exceptions in restaurants and bars, the outdoor areas of such venues, and public transit stops. All three are to become non-smoking zones.

The Greens want to expand health promotion in all stages of life and prevent violence and harassment at work. Medical care for prisoners during and after their sentence is also to be improved.

The Greens want people to stay healthy. There should be healthy food in daycare centers, schools and care homes. There should be no violence or harassment at work. Prisoners should get good care after release too.

Prevention priorities are healthy food in daycare, schools, hospitals and nursing homes, exercise options in neighborhoods and better health literacy. ILO Convention 190 against violence and harassment in the world of work is to be implemented at the federal level and in Hamburg. Health insurers are to advise employees on sick pay and inform them about workplace reintegration management (BEM) so that people with mental illness are not pushed into retirement. Workplace health promotion across insurers is to benefit small companies in particular. For released prisoners, discharge management is to ensure uninterrupted treatment and insurance coverage; funds are to be made available for early detection of infections in prison.

The Greens want to strengthen outpatient and outreach support for people with mental illness and expand the psychiatric emergency service. The aim is to prevent repeated hospital stays and homelessness. Trauma treatment for refugees is also to grow.

The Greens want more help for people with mental illness. The psychiatric emergency service should get bigger. Offices should handle requests for help faster. Refugees with trauma should also get more treatment.

The platform wants to strengthen existing outreach services such as Ambulante Sozialpsychiatrie (ASP, outpatient social psychiatry). The office for integration assistance is to process applications quickly and schedule care-planning conferences soon after an application; for this, the social affairs authority is to be well staffed and digitally equipped. The psychiatric emergency service within the public health service is to be expanded. Because many traumatized refugees develop mental illness and addiction, outpatient and inpatient trauma treatment is to be extended.

The Greens want to reduce dropout rates in nursing training by funding school social workers at nursing schools. Nursing professionals are to take on more tasks in local primary care. Intercultural and non-discriminatory care is to be made mandatory.

Many people quit nursing training. So the Greens want to fund social workers at nursing schools. Nurses should get more tasks in neighborhoods. Nobody should be treated unfairly in care.

Based on the Pflegekompetenzgesetz (nursing competence act), professional nursing is to be used more in primary care, for example by strengthening community health nurses in local health centers and primary care centers. Nursing staff are to have more influence over the structures of health care. Specialist further training is to be expanded, especially in pediatric nursing. Care facilities are to get help in obtaining seals such as "Lebensort Vielfalt." Intercultural competence and non-discrimination are to be mandatory in training and in facilities.

The Greens want drug and addiction policy to rely on prevention, harm reduction, and decriminalization rather than prosecuting people with addictions. Addiction services are to be funded permanently, and drug education in schools is to become mandatory. The cannabis law is to be implemented in Hamburg.

The Greens do not want to punish people with addictions. They want to help and advise them. Schools should teach children early about drugs. Addiction services should get enough money. The cannabis law should apply in Hamburg.

Wage increases under collective agreements in drug, addiction, and prevention services are to be covered by the city so that staffing and services are maintained. Education in schools is to become mandatory before puberty, in cooperation with addiction services. The party wants to implement the cannabis law with a balance between personal freedom and public precaution. In possible model regions, research is to examine how commercial supply chains affect health protection, youth protection, and the black market.

The Greens want to offer drug checking in Hamburg, meaning the testing of drugs for their contents, to reduce the risks of use. Easily accessible support services and the supply of substitution treatment are to be secured.

In drug checking, experts test what is in a drug. The Greens want to make this possible in Hamburg. This should protect people from dangerous substances. Easy-to-reach help should stay. People with addictions should be able to get substitute drugs from a doctor.

Drug checking is to take place at fixed sites in existing drug counseling centers and consumption rooms, and as a mobile on-site service, for example in clubs. The substitution service near the central station created during the pandemic, which is also open to people without health insurance, is to be secured permanently. The party wants to work with the association of statutory health insurance physicians to prevent a shortage of substitution doctors due to retirements. At the federal level, it supports easier access to substitution with drugs other than methadone and better pay for doctors.

The Greens want to improve protection against gambling addiction. In the next revision of the interstate gambling treaty, advertising for gambling and sports betting is to be banned and a monthly stake limit set without exceptions.

Gambling can be addictive. The Greens want to ban ads for gambling and sports betting. Each person should be able to bet at most 1,000 euros a month. The strict rules for gambling halls should stay.

The stake limit is to be at most 1,000 euros per person per month, and the nationwide exclusion register is to be expanded. In Hamburg, the party wants to keep the rules for gambling halls and betting shops, especially the ban on multiple licenses and the distance requirements. At federal and EU level, it supports stricter rules, up to a ban, on gambling-like elements in video games such as loot boxes. Legal advice for people with gambling addiction is to receive more funding so they can take action against illegal offers.

The Greens want to greatly expand care for queer people, for instance with dedicated specialist offices and trained staff in hospitals and nursing homes. The platform estimates that 4,500 to 9,000 queer people in Hamburg need care and sees a lack of discrimination-free services, which it says leads to isolation.

Many queer people in Hamburg need care. Often there are no fitting services for them. So the Greens want to create many more services. Care workers should be trained for this. Older queer people should also have a say in important bodies.

Plans include sensitized care support centers, flagship projects and LGBTIQ* representation on the state care committee. Two specialist offices for aging and counseling are to emerge from the project "Älter werden unterm Regenbogen." Training for care workers and research on the situation of queer people in need of care are to be funded. Queer seniors are to get a permanent seat on the state seniors' council.

The Greens want to make the emergency medical service medically independent and give it its own physicians. It is to be linked more closely with doctors' offices, hospitals and other services because call volumes are rising. Renovation of volunteer fire stations is to continue.

The ambulance service has more and more calls. The Greens want to give it its own doctors. It should work more closely with hospitals and doctors' offices. Volunteer fire stations will keep being renovated.

Physicians are to work around the clock in the organization and in the dispatch center. The integrated fire dispatch center will get a new building and be linked with the on-call medical service, patient transport and the care hotline, based on a fully digital rescue chain. The “Hansesanitäter” is to be tested as a new format for cases that need no hospital transport, and patient transport is to be reorganized to cut minor call-outs. Paramedics are to get more flexible employment models, more career options and a modern training environment. Quality management and data exchange with supraregional registries are also planned.

The Greens want to deploy an app that alerts medically trained people nearby when an emergency call comes in. This is to be combined with resuscitation training and more publicly accessible defibrillators. The reasoning is that every second counts in cardiac arrest and ambulances need several minutes to arrive.

When a heart stops, help must come very fast. The Greens want an app for first responders. The app calls trained people who are nearby. There will also be more courses on how to revive someone. More places will have defibrillators. These are devices that restart the heart.

Regular resuscitation training is to take place in schools and public institutions. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are to be installed in more public places and planned as standard in new public buildings. The Greens also want to expand cooperation with neighboring states on rescue operations.

The Greens want to create a short-stay psychiatric unit in the prison system and expand forensic psychiatric facilities as needed. According to the platform, the background is a rise in mental illness among inmates. Suicide prevention in custody is to be developed further.

More and more prisoners have mental illnesses. The Greens want a special unit in prison for them. Forensic clinics should also get more places. These are clinics for offenders with mental illness. The Greens want to prevent suicides in prison.

The platform rates health care in prisons as good overall but sees major challenges from mental and psychiatric illness. Expanding forensic psychiatric capacity is meant to relieve the prison system. The already revised suicide prevention plans are to be continued and adapted.