Linke on health and care

The Left wants city-run health centers in poorer districts that combine medical care with social and psychological counseling. Everyone in Hamburg should have nearby access to general practitioners and pediatricians regardless of their insurance. The party aims to overcome what it sees as two-tier medicine.

The Left wants health centers run by the city. They should be in poorer parts of town. They offer family doctors, children's doctors and counseling. Everyone should find a doctor nearby. The type of health insurance should not matter.

The centers would be designed with local residents' participation and would not stop taking new patients. The need for doctors would be planned at the level of individual neighborhoods. People without health insurance or without valid residence status would receive anonymous treatment vouchers. For accessibility, the platform mentions patient lifts in gynecological practices, stair lifts and information in easy-to-read language and foreign languages.

The Left wants to bring preventive health care closer to neighborhoods, including through community health nurses. Vaccinations should be easy to get and free of charge. Binding minimum standards would apply to indoor air in places such as daycare centers, schools and medical facilities.

The Left wants more preventive care in neighborhoods. Nurses should go out to people. Vaccinations should be free and easy to get. The air in daycare centers, schools and clinics should be clean. There should be fixed rules for that.

Community health nurses are nursing professionals who do outreach work in neighborhoods. Health data would be collected for each neighborhood, including exposure to noise and heat, to derive measures from it. As examples of vaccinations, the platform names measles, mumps, rubella and COVID-19. The air standards are meant to reduce infections and protect, for example, people with long COVID or pre-existing conditions.

The Left wants to bring hospitals back into public ownership and abolish the flat-rate payment system based on diagnosis-related groups (DRG). Hospital planning would follow actual need. The party argues that health is not a commodity.

Many hospitals in Hamburg belong to private companies. The Left wants the hospitals to belong to the city again. Today hospitals get fixed amounts per treatment. The party wants to end that. There should be more money for births and sick children.

The platform recalls that an earlier Senate privatized the city's hospitals even though a referendum opposed it. Obstetrics and pediatric medicine would be better funded, and integrated emergency centers would be financially secured. It calls for good working conditions for staff and good treatment conditions for patients. Pay and conditions should allow employees to do their jobs in good health until retirement.

The Left wants to plan care capacity, improve working conditions in care and give family caregivers financial security. In obstetrics, there would be one-to-one care during birth and midwife centers. Needing care or caring for relatives should not lead to poverty or isolation.

The Left wants better planning for care. People who care for relatives at home should have enough money. There should be more short-term care. During birth, one midwife should be there for one woman only. There should be midwife centers.

Planning would cover residential places as well as day, night and short-term care. An online portal for needs planning would be set up as a pilot project. The platform criticizes that financial investors have entered long-term care, that the city-owned operator "pflegen und wohnen" was privatized in 2007 and that residents' own contributions average about 2,400 euros a month. The party justifies midwife centers by saying prenatal and postnatal care is very unevenly spread across the city; midwife-led obstetrics would also be strengthened.

The Left wants to expand the psychiatric crisis service and fully fund the training of psychotherapists. In drug policy, it favors an acceptance-based approach with drug checking, consumption rooms and places where use is tolerated. Therapy should be available without co-payments to everyone who needs it.

The Left wants more help in mental health crises. There should be more therapy, especially for children and young people. People who use drugs should get help instead of pressure. They should be able to have their drugs tested. This is called drug checking.

The crisis service would work on an outreach and outpatient basis, and peer recovery companions would be strengthened. Training and continuing education would focus on therapy for children and adolescents. Drug consumption rooms and addiction counseling centers would be funded according to need, and addiction prevention for young people would be strengthened. For the area around the main train station, the party calls for day centers and emergency sleeping places where users can stay. Substitution clinics and exit-oriented services would also be set up in decentralized locations so treatment is possible away from the drug scene.

The Left wants Hamburg's COVID policy to be reviewed by a commission of inquiry (Enquete-Kommission). A broad range of experts would take part.

The Left wants Hamburg's COVID policy to be reviewed. A commission should do this. A commission is a group that looks closely at a topic. Many experts should take part, such as doctors and psychologists.

An Enquete-Kommission is a parliamentary body in which lawmakers and experts examine a topic together. As examples of the experts involved, the platform names doctors, including pediatricians, and psychologists. The subject is a review of the COVID measures taken in Hamburg.

The Left wants medicine to stop treating men as the standard and wants conditions that mainly affect women to be better researched and treated. Menstrual products are to be available free of charge in public restrooms.

Medical research often looks only at men. The Left wants to change that. Illnesses that affect women should be studied more. Public restrooms should offer free pads and tampons. Trans people should get medical help more easily.

The platform cites endometriosis and lipedema as examples; doctors are to bring themselves up to date on them. Education about menstruation and related complaints is meant to reduce shame and exclusion. Contraceptive methods for men are to be researched more and made better known. A conference on women's health would be held every year. For trans people, Hamburg is to push for lower barriers to medical transition, especially regarding coverage of costs.

The Left wants free, accessible Wi-Fi in all senior housing and nursing facilities. Care homes should also be inspected regularly and supported in offering queer-sensitive and culturally sensitive care.

The Left wants free Wi-Fi in all care homes. The city should check the homes regularly. Homes should respond to the needs of queer people and people from other cultures. They should get support for that.

Wi-Fi in senior housing and nursing facilities should be free, accessible, and fast enough. The regular inspections required by Hamburg's law on housing and care quality should actually be carried out. Facilities seeking certification in queer-sensitive and culturally sensitive care should receive support. Neighborhood housing projects with integrated care, focused on LGBTIQ* people and people living with HIV, should also be funded.