Hospital.Help

Berlin – The German Nursing Day laments the closure of hundreds of outpatient care services since last year. Given the significant increase in the number of people in need of care in the coming years, this is a huge problem, said the managing director of the German Care Day, Jürgen Graalmann, today at the opening of this year’s meeting of the care industry in Berlin.

Liquidity bottlenecks in particular would push nursing services to their limits. Political action is urgently needed here to secure outpatient care. The end of the traffic light government is all the more “catastrophic” for nursing, Graalmann continued. There are currently around five million people in need of care in Germany, and this number is expected to rise to 7.5 million in the next three decades.

The President of the German Nursing Council, Christine Vogler, warned not to move forward with the planned Nursing Competence Act in view of the government crisis. To combat the shortage of skilled workers, a new distribution of competencies in health care is needed, says Vogler.

Care must become more attractive. This also included uniform and nationwide career paths and quality criteria in nursing assistance. Basically, there needs to be a debate across society about the financing of care, says Vogler. “What is caring worth to us?”

The legislative process for a nursing competence law was postponed in mid-July until autumn. In the future, nursing specialists should be given more authority in care – depending on their qualifications. The draft bill for nursing assistant training was also presented in the summer. It is unlikely that any laws will be passed.

This year, the German Nursing Day has a record number of visitors with around 9,000 registrations and has the motto “Nursing shows attitude”. In view of “right-wing nationalist tendencies worldwide,” says Vogler, nursing wants to send a clear signal. Human dignity is inviolable. © kna/aerzteblatt.de