Berlin (epd). With a heat protection plan from the Federal Ministry of Health, the number of heat deaths in Germany should be halved. The aim is to reduce the number to under 4,000 this year, said Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) on Friday in Berlin after a meeting with the German Association of General Practitioners. In 2022 there were around 8,000 heat deaths nationwide. According to estimates by the Robert Koch Institute, 1,510 people have already died from heat in Germany this year, 880 of them in the 85+ age group.
Analogous to the national heat protection plan that has existed in France since 2004, the Federal Ministry of Health has developed such a plan for Germany, according to Lauterbach. Above all, it is about protecting so-called vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, those with previous illnesses, those in need of care, those living alone, people with disabilities or the homeless.
The Minister of Health wants heat protection to be interlocked, especially in the healthcare sector. Addressees of the heat protection plan are therefore primarily general practitioners, care facilities, hospitals, the public health service as well as states and municipalities. For example, general practitioners should make targeted contact with vulnerable patients and discuss protective measures if a heat wave is imminent.
Lauterbach wants to make the heat warning system of the German Weather Service (DWD) the standard and, if necessary, link it to mandatory acute measures, for example in care facilities. Warnings via app and SMS are also planned.
The federal chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, Markus Beier, said he was glad that general practitioners’ practices were also the focus of the heat protection measures. “We general practitioners treat around 34 million people with chronic diseases every year,” said Beier. It is important to make everyone aware that heat is a danger. Beier referred to a model project by the Association of General Practitioners and AOK Baden-Württemberg, in which practice teams are trained accordingly.
Criticism of the Lauterbach plan comes from the German Hospital Society (DKG), among others. The heat protection plans and the debate about them are good and important, explained the deputy DKG CEO Henriette Neumeyer: “But unfortunately the sick rooms don’t cool down with discussions and declarations of intent.” The hospitals needed an investment program to prepare the often very old building fabric for the heat across the board.
The board member of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, criticized: “Sequencing things that are taken for granted is not a heat protection plan”. Apps, posters and warning messages did not lower the temperatures in the rooms of the sick and those in need of care: “A heat shield is not available for free.”