Health department
As a local authority, the health department is part of the public health service . The health authorities are responsible for carrying out the medical tasks of health administration.
In Germany, a distinction is made between state health offices (there are, for example, in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria incorporated into the district offices ) and municipal health offices or health authorities . From 2001 onwards, numerous municipal health offices were renamed “Fachdienst Gesundheit”, others are located in the district offices and are no longer called “Health Department”, but “Department” or “ Subject Health Service”; "Lower health authority" can also be found as a designation. See the laws of the federal states on their public health service.
The management of a health department or a specialist service health is usually caused by a medical officer perceived.
tasks
The tasks of the public health service are diverse. They are noticed by the health authorities. The focus of these tasks can differ from state to state. They are determined by federal laws, state laws and regulations and, to a lesser extent, by EU law.
The tasks are often performed in different departments of a health department:
- Medical service
- Pediatric and adolescent medical service
- Children's and youth dental service (not in every federal state)
- Health reporting , epidemiology
- Health promotion
- AIDS advice
- Implementation of the Infection Protection Act , for example checking citizens for the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Hygiene monitoring
- Environmental medicine
- Social Psychiatric Service
- Pregnancy and pregnancy conflict counseling
- Official medical examination before admission to the profession of alternative practitioner
The tasks include, among other things, the monitoring of compliance with hygienic regulations in certain companies, but also the hygiene monitoring of so-called community facilities (schools, kindergartens, old people's homes, etc.), as well as the "monitoring" of ordered measures (delivery of samples, etc.) ). These tasks are i. d. Usually noticed by hygiene inspectors .
Hygienic monitoring is carried out for the following facilities (regulated differently in the individual federal states):
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The hygiene monitoring basically only affects the hygienic conditions for the people in the facilities mentioned. A distinction must be made between this and food hygiene and food monitoring , which are carried out by specially trained specialists. These tasks or the tasks of the veterinary office are organizationally combined with the health department only in individual municipalities .
Some of the tasks mentioned above have been privatized in some federal states, others are only partially or not assigned as a task to the health authorities, so that the responsibilities can differ from state to state.
Other tasks include carrying out examinations for extensions of a driving license from the age of 50 (no longer in all federal states), school entry examinations for children before school entry by the child and youth health service (KJGD), assistance for mentally ill people (social psychiatric services), Support for addicts and health information, education and advice for the population, and support for health self-help groups .
Participation and, in some cases, coordinating management of activities to record child welfare risks , such as B. the control of participation in the preventive medical check-ups (U1 to U9 / J1 for children) together with the youth welfare offices and with the involvement of the paediatricians is one of the more recent tasks of the ÖGD in some federal states.
Other new tasks of the health authorities include health reporting and, in North Rhine-Westphalia, the health conferences enshrined in the law for the public health service. They are an expression of the reform of the health authorities and contribute to the fact that essential parts of the control of health care at local level become possible.
The legal basis for the work of health authorities are the state laws on the public health service that have been newly passed in most countries in recent years and legal regulations at the federal level such as the Infection Protection Act and the Drinking Water Ordinance . This defines the framework for the work of the health authorities.
When performing their tasks, the health authorities work together with the responsible enforcement authorities. For example, in the context of hazard prevention, measures to prevent communicable diseases or protective measures to combat them are ordered by the competent authority on the proposal of the health department (Section 16 (6), Section 28 (3 ) IfSG ).
history
The predecessor of the health department in Prussia was the district doctor . The health offices were created throughout Germany in 1934 due to the law on the standardization of the health system. This was extended to Austria in 1938, where it and its implementing ordinances still apply today.
In the time of National Socialism, the health authorities were also responsible for “genetic and racial maintenance”. The department responsible was the Hereditary Health Office . Since July 3, 1934, public medical officers have been entitled to apply for compulsory sterilization under the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring , which the Hereditary Health Court had to decide on. The doctors also decided on compliance with the " eugenic " marriage rules by issuing certificates of fitness for marriage under the Marriage Health Act, as well as on applications for marital loans , child loans and educational loans in which "inferior" were discriminated against.
In the GDR , the health offices were initially renamed the district's health department and replaced in 1952 by centrally managed hygiene inspections . It was not until the end of the GDR that municipal health offices came into being again through an ordinance of the Council of Ministers , which is still in force in Thuringia today.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, the law on the standardization of the health system initially continued to apply ( Art. 123 GG ). From 1979 it was replaced on the basis of the guideline for state laws on the health system of the GMK , first in Schleswig-Holstein, last in 2007 in Hesse.
See also
- Germany's health system
- Health system in Austria
- Health care Switzerland
- Public health service in Austria
- European Center for Disease Prevention and Control
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the US health agency
- Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
literature
- Alfons Labisch , Florian Tennstedt : Public Health Office or Public Health Office? On the development of the public health service since 1933. In: Norbert Frei (Hrsg.): Medicine and health policy in the Nazi era. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1991 (= writings of the quarterly books for contemporary history. Special issue), ISBN 3-486-64534-X , pp. 35–66.
Web links
- Law on the Public Health Service in Hamburg (Hamburgisches Gesundheitsdienstgesetz - HmbGDG). In: Justizportal Hamburg. July 18, 2001, accessed September 22, 2013 .
- Hessian law on the public health service (HGöGD). In: Hesse law legal and administrative regulations. September 28, 2007, accessed November 3, 2014 .
- Law on the Public Health Service (Lower Saxony)
- Law on the Public Health Service (Schleswig-Holstein)
- Directories of health authorities nationwide
- Collection of links and addresses of health authorities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
- Search for the responsible German health department using the Robert Koch Institute's zip code tool
- Directory of all German health authorities by federal state
Individual evidence
- ^ Scientific services of the German Bundestag : The health service laws of the federal states (WD 9 - 3000 - 027/14)
- ↑ Stadtkreise Stuttgart, Mannheim and Heilbronn (§ 2 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 ÖGDG)
- ↑ Independent cities of Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ingolstadt and Memmingen (§ 2 Paragraph 2 GesV)
- ↑ www.freistaat.bayern: health authorities
- ↑ cf. Public law agreement on the amalgamation of the health departments of the city and district of Kassel
- ↑ Statutes of the association "Administrative Association for the Health Department of the City of Darmstadt and the District of Darmstadt-Dieburg"
- ^ LÄKH : health authorities
- ↑ cf. Agreement on purpose between the city of Osnabrück and the district of Osnabrück on municipal cooperation in the field of public health services
- ↑ a b Zweckverband Gesundheitsamt Uelzen - Lüchow-Dannenberg
- ↑ KVN: health authorities in Lower Saxony
- ^ LZG.NRW : Health offices in NRW
- ^ Health authorities of the districts and independent cities
- ↑ Law on the position of the district doctor and the formation of health commissions of September 16, 1899 ( GS p. 172 )
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↑ Law on the standardization of the health system of July 3, 1934 ( RGBl. I p. 531 ) with implementing ordinances:
- First implementing ordinance to the law on the standardization of the health system of February 6, 1935 ( RGBl. I p. 177 )
- Second implementing ordinance to the law on the standardization of the health system (service regulations - general part) of February 22, 1935 ( RGBl. I p. 215 )
- Third implementing ordinance to the law on the standardization of the health system (service regulations for the health authorities - special part) of March 30, 1935 (RMBl. Pp. 327, 435; GBlÖ No. 686/1938 )
- Ordinance on the collection of fees by the health authorities of March 28, 1935 ( RGBl. I p. 481 )
- ↑ Announcement of November 29, 1938 ( GBlÖ No. 686/1938 )
- ^ Alfons Labisch and Florian Tennstedt : Public Health Office or Public Health Office? On the development of the public health service since 1933. In: Medicine and health policy in the Nazi era. Edited by Norbert Frei , R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1991 (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history, special issue), ISBN 3-486-64534-X , pp. 35–66; here: p. 35
- ^ Message from the Minister of Health of the German Democratic Republic regarding the designation "Abt. Health Service "and" District Doctor "of August 20, 1951 ( Official Gazette [Thuringia] p. 127 )
- ^ Ordinance on the hygiene inspection of December 4, 1952 ( Journal of Laws of No. 171 p. 1271 )
- ↑ Ordinance on the public health service and the tasks of the health authorities in the districts and urban districts of August 8, 1990 ( Journal of Laws of I No. 53 p. 1068 )