SPD on health and care

The SPD wants to guarantee basic hospital care in every region of the state. At the same time, hospitals are to specialize more and cooperate more closely to raise quality in particular fields.

The SPD wants to keep hospitals in all regions. Everyone should have a hospital nearby. Some hospitals should focus on certain treatments. Hospitals should work together more.

The state's hospitals are to receive a total of 250 million euros from the federal special fund. Crisis resilience, civil protection, and heat and climate protection are to be taken into account as well. Air rescue is to get an additional helicopter in western Mecklenburg. Another goal is a statewide network of defibrillators with a registry and a first-responder app. At the federal level, the SPD wants to make sure that people with low incomes do not go without necessary treatment because of co-payments or drug costs.

The SPD wants to use state programs to attract more doctors and other health professionals, especially to rural areas. Among other things, the rural doctor quota for medical school admission is to continue.

The SPD wants to bring more doctors to the state. Doctors are missing mostly in villages. There is a rural doctor quota for this. It means: people who will later work in the countryside get a place in medical school more easily.

The SPD holds the associations of statutory health insurance physicians and dentists responsible for securing outpatient care and wants to back this up with its own programs. Psychotherapists, physical therapists, and specialist and nursing staff are also sought. Together with universities, professional chambers and insurers, it wants to examine how to create more training places for psychotherapy. Training networks are to get more support, AI and digital tools are to be used more, and more medical tasks are to be handed to health professionals. The SPD also wants to bring back community nurses and strengthen further qualification in nursing.

The SPD wants to support medical care centers that are not run for profit and make it easier for municipalities to set up their own. Combined with mobile medical teams and telemedicine, this is meant to cover even remote places.

The SPD wants more medical centers in the countryside. Towns should be able to set up such centers more easily. Teams of doctors travel from there to the villages. Video appointments should help too.

The centers are to serve as bases for mobile teams and include services such as physical therapy, foot care and pharmacies. In the SPD's view, no private profit may be made from health at the expense of insurers, patients and employees. The appointment service deadlines of at most 35 days for a doctor's appointment and two weeks for acute psychotherapy needs are to be met and shortened where possible. Telemedicine is to link hospitals, emergency services, practices, rehab clinics and nursing homes. The SPD also wants to push for a reform of medical needs planning and examine a coordination office for patient representation.

The SPD wants to push for a statewide model that makes it easier for people without adequate health insurance to see a doctor. At its core are an anonymous treatment voucher and outpatient services.

Some people have no health insurance. The SPD wants to help them. They should get a voucher for the doctor. They do not have to give their name. Advice centers help them get back into insurance.

Clearing offices are to advise those affected on how to regain regular insurance or claim benefits they are already entitled to. In addition, the SPD wants to secure the supply of medicines through local pharmacies. At the federal level, it is working for pharmacy fees to rise in line with general prices.

The SPD wants to continue preventive health work in the state and calls on the federal government for an addiction prevention program whose funds go to municipalities. It also pushes for more research on Long Covid and related illnesses and for a strong public health service.

The SPD wants people to stay healthy. Children should learn about healthy food. The federal government should give money to fight addiction. Illnesses like Long Covid should be studied more. Public health offices should stay strong.

The state prevention program is meant to promote health knowledge, ways out of addiction, mental health and exercise opportunities. Schoolyards are generally to be open outside school hours. Healthy eating and health literacy are to be taught in daycare, school and family and written into all education plans. The addiction program is meant to reduce the effects of media addiction, alcohol, nicotine, cannabis and illegal drugs. The SPD wants to keep working with initiatives on Long Covid, ME/CFS, Post Covid and PostVac and achieve more research nationwide. Mental illness should no longer be stigmatized and should be treated better.

The SPD wants to press at the federal level for a comprehensive reform of long-term care insurance because, in its view, needing care is a poverty risk. In the state, the Pakt für Pflege (care pact) is to continue permanently, and care in familiar surroundings is to take priority.

Care costs a lot of money. Some people become poor because of it. So the SPD wants to change long-term care insurance. People should be cared for at home when possible. There should be new forms of housing and more help from neighbors.

The care pact is to be made permanent and focus more on prevention to avoid or delay the need for care. Social planning for care is to be strengthened. The SPD wants to keep supporting new forms of housing for people needing care, such as shared care apartments, and expand neighborhood help. A pilot project called Pflegefinder is to make available outpatient care capacity visible and help match it. Work in care is to be well paid and covered by collective agreements.

The SPD wants to push for legally guaranteed care leave during which family caregivers receive wage replacement payments. It argues that most care is provided at home.

Many people care for relatives at home. The SPD wants to help them. They should get care leave. During that time they get money to replace their wages.

According to the program, more than eighty percent of care takes place at home, mostly provided by relatives and close persons. In the SPD's view, they should receive recognition, financial security and relief. The care leave is to be guaranteed by law. People needing care are also to get further relief.

The SPD wants to further develop the two university medical centers in Greifswald and Rostock and invest in buildings and equipment. They are to play a central role in the state's health care planning. They are also to train skilled staff and keep them in the state.

The SPD wants to strengthen the university hospitals in Greifswald and Rostock. The state should pay for buildings and equipment. The hospitals should be important for care across the state. They should also train doctors and nurses.

As an example, the program cites a construction drive at Rostock University Medical Center that is to become the state's largest building site over the next 15 years. Research priorities are to be developed further, and research, teaching and patient care closely linked. The SPD wants to meet staffing needs partly by expanding nursing degree programs and offering attractive working conditions. Both sites are to cooperate more closely and serve as anchors of regional care.

The SPD supports a health data platform in the state so that researchers can exchange data more easily. Telemedicine is to be expanded because, in the program's view, this is the only way to secure care across the whole state in the long run.

The SPD wants a platform for health data. Researchers should be able to share data there more easily. Telemedicine should also grow. Telemedicine means doctors treat patients by video or online. This should secure care in rural areas.

The SPD is open to a nationwide solution for the data platform. Together with the self-governing bodies of the health system, the telematics infrastructure, telemedicine platforms and research data infrastructure are to be developed further. Digitalization is meant to bring better networking, more efficient processes and more time for patients. The program also sees this as strengthening the health care industry.

The SPD wants to press the federal government for a tax on soft drinks and other foods with a lot of sugar. The higher price is meant to steer buying behavior. The program cites other European countries as a model.

The SPD wants a tax on drinks and food with a lot of sugar. Then these products cost more. That way people should buy less of them. Other countries in Europe already have such a tax. The federal government decides on this.

The demand is addressed to the federal level because the state cannot introduce such a tax on its own. It is to cover soft drinks as well as other foods with a high sugar content. According to the program, the aim is to steer behavior through the price.