New draft bill on the future of a Federal Institute for...

New draft bill on the future of a Federal Institute for…

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Berlin – There is a new draft bill on the future of the Federal Center for Health Education and parts of the Robert Koch Institute in a joint federal institute. In future, the law establishing a “Federal Institute for Prevention and Education in Medicine” (BIPAM) will be called the “Law to Strengthen Public Health”. This is the result of a draft bill submitted to the German Medical Journal and was apparently sent to the other ministries in the government for approval. This is an undated draft bill.

Previously, in mid-October 2023, there was a draft entitled “Law regulating the successor to the Federal Center for Health Education” and was heavily criticized by the specialist public. Ministry circles said that this was “not final”. The new federal institute is to be set up on January 1, 2025.

The draft now published describes in more detail what tasks the institute will have after the merger of the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) and parts of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI): The RKI’s tasks in the area of ​​health reporting will be transferred to the new BIPAM, and cancer registry data will also be kept here in the future, the draft states.

It is also made clear that “the Robert Koch Institute is responsible for the tasks of detecting, preventing and combating communicable and related non-communicable diseases.” Likewise, the tasks of “epidemiological investigations in the field of communicable and related non-communicable diseases, including the detection and assessment of risks as well as documentation and information” remain in the hands of the RKI. In the previous draft law, the future responsibilities were formulated differently.

The tasks of the new institute will be federal health reporting, including health monitoring. “Together, BIPAM and the RKI are strengthening public health at the federal level as a central component of the German health system and are implementing the Public Health Action Cycle in close cooperation,” says the justification for the law.

Furthermore, public health and voluntary cooperation with public health actors are to be strengthened. The third task is to achieve “evidence-based, target group-specific communication, particularly aimed at vulnerable population groups”. The prevention and avoidance of diseases as well as health promotion and health literacy in the population are also to be strengthened.

The fifth task provided for in the law is to transfer “scientific research and cooperation with initiatives at European and international level” to the institute. This also includes “support in the development of guidelines and standards,” it continues. These tasks have been reformulated in some places compared to the October version of the law.

The institute will be based in Cologne and Berlin. In addition, the Federal Institute will be the legal successor to the BZgA, and this will also apply to the employment relationships of the civil servants employed by the predecessor institutions.

What is new in the law are the costs for the merger of BZgA and parts of the RKI: The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) expects an additional annual requirement of 30 million euros from the start of the institute in 2025. This relates primarily to the development of public health data management and suitable analysis tools, as well as strengthening prevention and health communication. 14.4 million euros are estimated for this.

Strengthening the networking of public health and the public health service is expected to cost just over twelve million euros annually. In addition, 3.5 million euros are earmarked for coordinating departmental research and setting up an office for public health conferences.

In addition, there is a one-off additional requirement of 19.3 million euros, which arises “in particular for the establishment of a child and youth panel, the IT infrastructure and for the connection to the secure working environment of the FDZ Health at the BfArM.” The FDZ is the research data center at the Federal Institute for Drug Safety and Medical Devices (BfArM). © bee/aerzteblatt.de

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