What do the parties in Saarland say on health and care?

The AfD rejects any further lockdowns and wants society to learn to live with the coronavirus. Unvaccinated people should not be put at a disadvantage. The platform bases this on the effects of the restrictions on livelihoods, students and young people.

The AfD wants no new lockdown. In a lockdown, the state closes many places and limits contact. People should learn to live with the virus. Unvaccinated people should not be treated worse.

The AfD wants to prevent a COVID-19 vaccine mandate and considers it disproportionate. Vaccination should remain voluntary, like the flu shot. In the platform's view, the available vaccines do not protect well enough and COVID-19 is not a serious danger for most people.

The AfD is against a vaccine mandate for COVID-19. Everyone should decide for themselves about the shot. The party says the vaccines do not protect well enough. It fears people would have to get shots again and again.

The AfD demands that the government permanently ensure enough intensive care beds and staff. Medicines and protective equipment should also be secured for everyone affected. The platform criticizes that capacity was cut during the pandemic.

The AfD wants hospitals to be better prepared. There should be enough beds for very sick people. There should also be enough staff. Medicine and protective gear should be there for everyone.

The AfD wants the state's investment funding for hospitals to match actual need and wants to stop closures and bed cuts. The number of medical school places is to rise sharply, and medical care in rural areas and maternity care are to be supported.

The AfD wants more state money for hospitals. No more hospitals or maternity wards should close. More young people should be able to study medicine. Rural areas should also have enough doctors.

The AfD wants to preserve small local pharmacies and avoid drug shortages. Discount contracts and the reimport quota are to be dropped, and incentives are to encourage drug production in Germany or the EU.

The AfD wants to keep small local pharmacies. Medicines should always be available. More medicines should come from Germany or the EU. The AfD wants to end discount contracts. These are price deals between health insurers and drug makers.

The AfD calls for a sector-wide collective agreement for all care workers that secures appropriate pay. It also wants family-friendly working hours, funded retraining and more advertising for care professions. This is meant to counter the staff shortage in care.

The AfD wants one pay agreement for all care workers. Such an agreement sets pay for a whole sector. Care workers should be paid well this way. Working hours should also fit better with family life.

The AfD wants to raise the care allowance for relatives who provide care at home to the level of the in-kind benefits paid for professional care services, and to add a yearly state subsidy. It also wants to lower nursing home costs and ease the workload of care staff. The platform argues that relatives provide most care and receive too little recognition for it.

Many people care for family members at home. The AfD wants to give them more money. The state should also pay an extra amount once a year. Nursing homes should cost less too.

The CDU wants to give the Heimaufsicht (care home supervisory authority) more staff and turn it into a modern, digitally working agency. It is to advise care homes more and work in dialogue with them in order to secure the quality of care over the long term.

The Heimaufsicht checks care homes. The CDU wants to hire more staff there. The agency should work digitally. It should not only inspect homes but also advise them more.

The CDU wants to link outpatient and inpatient care more closely, redesign hospital planning and set up a medical care center in every municipality. It pledges 840 million euros in investment funding over 15 years. The platform presents this as a lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDU wants to reorganize care by doctors and hospitals. Every municipality should have a medical center. Practices and hospitals should work together digitally. The state should provide 840 million euros over 15 years.

The CDU wants to continue and increase funding for rural doctors and new practices, and create more university places in medicine and dentistry. The goal is at least one family doctor in every municipality and care close to home across the state.

Rural areas often lack doctors. The CDU wants to support doctors who open a practice there. There should also be more places to study medicine. Every municipality should have at least one family doctor.

The CDU wants to introduce medium-term planning of training facilities for non-academic health professions, based on a needs analysis. The reason given is new legal rules for these training programs, which place higher demands on schools, teachers and trainees.

Training for nursing and other health jobs has changed. The CDU wants to plan exactly how many training places the state needs. Further training should be included too. Intensive care nursing is especially important.

The CDU wants to centralize procurement and storage for Saarland's hospitals and expand a central warehouse for this purpose. In addition, the public health service is to get more staff and digital technology and be permanently linked with disaster response.

The CDU wants the state to be better prepared for crises like a pandemic. Hospitals should buy and store supplies together. There should be one large warehouse for this. Public health offices should get more staff and better technology.

The CDU wants to develop a strategy for digital patient care together with IT companies and research institutions based in Saarland. It considers a partial reassessment of data protection in health care necessary so that digital services are practical and user-friendly.

Doctors, hospitals and others should work together digitally. The CDU wants to make a plan for this. Companies and researchers from Saarland should help. Some data protection rules should be reviewed.

The CDU wants to improve conditions in long-term care for staff, people in need of care and their relatives, including through higher pay, flexible working hours and more responsibility for nurses. New job profiles, such as a dual assistant training in Heilerziehungspflege (care for people with disabilities), are meant to bring in more skilled workers.

More and more people need care. The CDU wants care workers to get more pay and better working hours. There should be new training programs. Relatives who care for someone at home should also get relief.

The CDU wants drug policy to keep focusing on education and prevention and does not want drug use to be played down. At the same time, counseling and treatment are to grow, a substitution center is to be set up, and a pilot project for testing drugs is to start in Saarbrücken.

The CDU wants to warn and inform people about drugs. It wants more counseling and treatment for people with addictions. A new center is to give substitute medication to people who are dependent. In Saarbrücken, people should be able to have drugs checked for special dangers.

The CDU wants to build shared health care structures with neighboring regions so that treatment is possible on both sides of the border. An interregional crisis and pandemic task force is to coordinate action in emergencies, and rescue services are to cooperate across the border.

Diseases do not stop at borders. So the CDU wants to work more closely with the neighbors. Sick people should be able to get treatment on both sides of the border. A shared crisis team should plan for emergencies and pandemics. Fire and rescue services should also help across the border.

The SPD aims for a digital health system with telemedicine, connected providers, and electronic health records. This is meant to relieve doctors and nurses, improve care, and avoid duplicate examinations.

The SPD wants more digital tools in medicine. Doctors should also be able to advise by video. Practices and hospitals should share data easily. Home technology should make care at home easier.

The SPD wants to gain 4,000 additional care workers by the end of the decade to end the staff shortage. A concerted action on care, better pay, more training places and a new care plan are meant to contribute.

Saarland lacks many care workers. The SPD wants 4,000 more of them by 2030. Care workers should be paid better. There should be more places for training and for day care for people who need help.

The SPD wants to give nursing staff more room to act on their own and relieve them of paperwork. It also wants to make it easier to bring in foreign nurses and to recognize their qualifications.

The SPD wants to strengthen nursing as a job. Nurses should be able to decide more on their own. They should have less paperwork. Nurses from other countries should find it easier to work in Saarland.

The SPD wants to push in the Bundesrat for a solidarity-based long-term care insurance in which people's own contributions are capped from the start of their need for care. In Saarland, more short-term care places and more outpatient services are to be created.

Care costs people a lot of money. The SPD wants to limit these costs. The limit should apply from the first month. Saarland should get more places for short-term care.

The SPD wants the state to take an active role in hospital planning again and to keep Saarland free of private hospital operators. The state should be able to take stakes in hospital providers, and the shortage of doctors and therapists in rural areas is to be countered.

The SPD does not want private companies to run hospitals. The state should plan hospitals better. The state can also take a share in hospital providers. Rural areas should have enough doctors.

The SPD wants to reorganize the public health service in local health offices and at state level. It plans more staff, new responsibilities, more prevention and a state institute modeled on the Robert Koch Institute.

The SPD wants to improve the public health offices. More people should work there. The offices should do more to prevent illness. A new health institute is to be set up in Homburg.

The SPD wants to expand psychotherapy services in Saarland because, according to the program, people wait months for a place. Addiction prevention and help for people with addictions are also to be strengthened.

Many people wait a long time for therapy. The SPD wants to create more therapy places. It also wants to help people with addictions better. Homeless people should get help more easily too.

The SPD wants to enable older people to stay in their own homes by introducing housing advice, support for home conversions and outreach counseling. Senior citizens' offices, a legally guaranteed say for seniors' councils and an updated dementia strategy are also planned.

Many people want to stay at home when they are old. The SPD wants to help with changes to the home. Older people should get advice. People with dementia should also get more help. Dementia is an illness that makes people forget many things.