The German health system must be prepared for an armed conflict – but the reality is different. The German Red Party criticizes the policy.
Berlin – Health Minister Karl Lauterbach probably didn’t make any new friends when he announced in March that he wanted to prepare the German health system for an armed conflict. At least not among those affected by the conflict. There is a consensus among those affected: Even in peacetime, providing care is a headache – and there’s no need to even start with a war scenario. The German Red Cross (DRK) is now addressing politicians in no uncertain terms: The country is nowhere near prepared for an emergency.
Health system not prepared for war
Lauterbach reacted with his words to the Russian attack and the resulting Ukraine Warwhich makes it clear that a war scenario for Germany – whether directly or via the NATO-Alliance case – is no longer far removed from reality.
“In an armed conflict or crisis, we are faced with a double challenge: the already great health services for the civilian population must be maintained and, in addition, there is the need for soldiers.” Joß Steinke is the head of the German Red Cross for youth and welfare. IPPEN.MEDIA Steinke and his colleague René Burfeindt, head of the German Red Cross’s national relief organization, draw attention to what it actually means to prepare the health system for an emergency.
The German Red Cross recently formulated a special “focus point” entitled “Preparing the German health system for armed conflicts”. According to Steinke, this is “basically a comment on the statements made by the Minister of Health. We also want to point out the discrepancy between the political demands placed on us and the actual framework conditions and the overall situation of the social system.”
Hospitals, emergency services and volunteers must help
The German Red Cross has a special role to play, as the non-profit organisation is legally obliged to provide medical services to the German Armed Forces to support. The Red Cross also operates a number of rescue services and hospitals in the country and coordinates the work of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. Lauterbach’s high-profile appearance has prompted the organization to show where problems are going in Germany. “We are not sufficiently equipped for an expanded armed conflict,” says Burfeindt, for example, in a discussion about the supply situation within the country. “We are already reaching our limits in some areas of the health system,” adds Steinke.
DRK calls for a turning point in the health sector
The German Red Cross is therefore demanding more than just words from politicians. “We need a solution not only in the military sense, Turning point“, says Burfeindt. “We must therefore draw attention to the question of how we should mobilize additional forces for humanitarian tasks in an armed conflict under these conditions.”
The DRK officials use the country’s hospitals, which are facing closure, as an example: “Many hospitals are already threatened with extinction or have had to close – it is a contradiction to current policy to suddenly say that this system should then survive in an armed conflict.”
Two billion euros for civil protection
The Red Cross representatives are demanding, among other things, more funds. Specifically, they want 0.5 percent of the gross domestic product for civil protection. That would be around two billion euros annually – a quarter of that is currently spent. In addition, more equipment is needed if one is serious about ensuring safety in an emergency. As an example, Burfeindt cites the MBM 5000, a mobile accommodation facility that can provide immediate care for 5,000 people if the infrastructure is destroyed.
The German Red Cross is providing one of these. “The aim of German politics is to have ten of these modules available in the future and thus ensure the care of 50,000 people,” says Burfeindt. By comparison, international protection goals often assume one to two percent of the population – that would be around 1 million people. German Red Cross representative Burfeindt therefore criticizes the politics here too: “For years we have been talking about the fact that There must be adequate funding for civil protection. We are still a long way from that.”
Red Cross wants a change in social direction
In order to make the German health system crisis-proof, the German Red Cross believes that one thing is needed above all: money. For equipment, for staff, but also for training the civilian population on how to proceed in the event of infrastructure collapse.
For Joß Steinke, the success or failure of the turning point in the health system depends on a change of direction for society as a whole: “In view of the underfunding of all these areas, we must now ask ourselves what we actually want as a society. Do we want a social system that is primarily geared towards economic efficiency or one that focuses more on quality, is long-term and is prepared for the emergency of armed conflict? And we must then be honest: It is not always cheap. But these investments are worthwhile.”
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