State Seniors' Council: better staffing of health authorities

The State Seniors' Council is calling for better staffing levels at health authorities. Their underfunding and understaffing could put elderly people at risk, Managing Director Jan Steinhaußen told the German Press Agency. One of the tasks of the authorities is to take care of hygiene and infection control in hospitals and retirement homes. Deficits in these authorities therefore have a major indirect impact on the elderly - for example if infections occur due to a lack of hygiene in clinics or care homes.

According to the Thuringian Ministry of Health, hospitals and care facilities are responsible for infection control and compliance with hygiene regulations. The health authorities only have a monitoring function, said a ministry spokeswoman. Today, they perform these tasks better than in the past, both in terms of quality and quantity. The staffing situation in many offices has recently improved. She referred to 175 additional full-time positions across the country that were created between 2021 and 2023.

Federal-state program for the public health service

In the coming years, there will be additional staff. A multi-billion euro federal-state programme to increase staffing levels and digitalize the public health service (ÖGD) in Germany has been running since 2020. Thuringia had already begun providing financial support to local authorities to recruit public health officers. The state provides salary subsidies to reduce the difference between the pay scale in the public sector and doctors' salaries in hospitals, rehabilitation clinics and surgeries. "This provides the municipalities with an instrument to increase doctors' remuneration by around 1,500 euros per month outside of the standard pay scale," says the ministry.

Demand: relieve health authorities of tasks

According to the State Seniors' Council, the public health service must also open up more to other professional groups. Not every employee of the public health service has to be a doctor or nurse, said Steinhaußen. Sociologists or graduates of public health courses, for example, could also provide important impetus in this area. It is also essential to reduce the tasks of the health authorities. He doubts, for example, that the health authorities should be responsible for checking death certificates as they are at present.

Two draft bills from the Left, SPD, Greens and FDP are currently being discussed in the Thuringian state parliament, which deal with the public health service structure in Thuringia.