SPD on health and care

The SPD wants to keep existing hospitals running through lasting state investment funding. The hospital landscape is to be guided by quality, accessibility and efficiency rather than by the interests of capital.

The SPD wants to keep the hospitals in the state. The state should give money for this in the long run. If a private owner pulls out, counties or cities should be able to take over. The state should help with money. Doctors should also be able to help by video.

The state is to help pay for conversions and contribute money when hospitals have to return to municipal ownership, for example when private operators withdraw. Minimum staffing levels are planned for doctors and nursing. Outpatient and inpatient care, emergency services and nursing care are to be linked more closely. Telemedicine, the TeleSAN network, the IVENA steering system, remote emergency doctors and community paramedics are to supplement care and be rolled out statewide, along with training for older people. For rural areas, the platform names mobile services and regional care centers.

The SPD counts maternity care close to home as part of basic medical services. Existing maternity wards are to stay as long as quality is ensured, and there are to be more midwife-led delivery rooms.

Women should be able to give birth close to home. The SPD wants to keep the maternity wards. The quality has to be right. There should be more delivery rooms run by midwives.

Keeping existing wards depends on medical quality being ensured. Midwife-led delivery rooms are to be added in a targeted way. The stated goal is that every woman can choose a place to give birth that fits her own needs.

The SPD wants to organize care so that people can live independently at home for as long as possible, and to push for a care reform in the Bundesrat. At the same time, care work is to be relieved of red tape.

Old and sick people should be able to live at home for a long time. The SPD wants to strengthen help in the neighborhood. The federal government should reform care. Care workers should have less paperwork. From age 65 there should be a voluntary health check.

For the federal reform, the focus is on funding, training standards, quality and assessment guidelines, uniform documentation and recruiting staff. Double inspections by the medical service (MDK) and the care home regulator are to end, and digital links to medical practices are to be expanded. Locally, care networks, neighborhood-based approaches, organized neighbor help and outpatient palliative care are to grow; the state funds investment in care homes where care would otherwise be at risk. Plans include a voluntary "senior check" from age 65, specialized outpatient geriatric care and better conditions for people with dementia. Family caregivers are to be represented on state and local care bodies.

The SPD wants training in all health professions to be free of school fees and to come with trainee pay. Together with other measures, this is meant to address the shortage of health workers.

People who train for a health job should not pay school fees. The SPD also wants trainees to get paid. That way more people should learn these jobs. The state also wants to keep more doctors in rural areas.

The quotas for rural doctors, public health doctors and rural dentists will continue. In awarding medical school places, work experience and social skills are to count alongside high school grades. Health professions are to take on more tasks in care to relieve doctors. From 2027, the new profession of nursing assistant is to be trained in the state. A recruitment drive is planned for Heilerziehungspflege (care work for people with disabilities).

The SPD wants psychiatric and psychotherapeutic care to match demand because mental illness is on the rise. Prevention, early detection and the public health service are also to be strengthened.

More and more people have mental illnesses. The SPD wants more help and advice for them. Waiting times for treatment should get shorter. Prevention should also matter more, for example against cancer and addiction.

Prevention, counseling and treatment are to be expanded, and community psychiatry networks strengthened. For queer people burdened by discrimination, the platform plans tailored counseling. Programs for cancer screening, addiction prevention and healthy eating continue, and health education in schools is to grow. The non-smoker protection law is to be revised after its evaluation, and prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections is to be securely funded. The public health service is to get more staff and digital equipment; the federal government is to continue its pact for it.