Medical service of the traffic system of the GDR

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The railway medical service set itself the task of providing health care for railway workers in Germany. The Medical Service of Transport (MDV) with the central management and the Central Institute for Transport Medicine in Berlin as well as 10 directorates developed from this railway medical service . In 1989 the MDV had 3,150 employees in the polyclinics , outpatient clinics, medical centers as well as medical and dental workplaces for the health care of employees in the transport sector.

1885 to 1958: Railway medical service of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR)

The full-time railway medical service was launched in Germany in 1885. The full-time or part-time doctors examined the employed railroad workers for their fitness and, after the employment, regularly examined their state of health. After 1945 the railway medical service was active in the four occupation zones and from 1949 separately in the GDR (including Berlin) and in the Federal Republic. On January 1, 1953, the chief railway doctors and railway doctors were detached from Department 14 of the Reich Railway Directorate in the GDR by a decree of the Director General of the DR and merged into a railway medical service centrally managed by the chief doctor of the DR.

Medical service of the traffic system of the GDR

With the ordinance on the Medical Service of Transport in the GDR (MDV) of November 5, 1958, an overarching medical service for the individual modes of transport, based on the centrally managed railway medical service, was created. The MDV included around 50 offices, the Central Institute for Transport Medicine in Berlin, an office for the "Shipping" department head in Rostock, as well as an X-ray car and two dental stations on rails. In order to develop further diagnostic and therapeutic capacities of the newly established company health system, the following facilities were taken over by the MDV from the state health system:

  • 8 polyclinics
  • 19 company outpatient clinics
  • 1 rural outpatient clinic
  • 1 night sanatorium
  • 1 bed station in the port of Rostock-Langenort
  • 200 medical services
  • 48 nurses' medical centers
  • 1 central pharmacy from 1968

In its further development in 1959, the MDV was divided into a central management with the chief physician and his deputy in Berlin, Leipziger Straße 122, the Central Institute for Transport Medicine in Berlin with the "Aviation Department", later "Aviation Directorate", the "Rostock Directorate" , later "Shipping Directorate", as well as eight directorates. The newly created directorates corresponded locally to the Reichsbahn directorates and the inspections to the Reichsbahn offices:

  • Directorate Berlin
  • Magdeburg Directorate with inland shipping
  • Schwerin Directorate
  • Greifswald Directorate with the Rb Baltic Sea ferries
  • Directorate Erfurt
  • Dresden Directorate
  • Cottbus Directorate
  • Directorate Halle
  • Shipping Directorate in Rostock
  • Aviation Directorate in Berlin-Schönefeld

In the years to come, other transport companies were included in the support provided by the MDV. This included the employees of the local transport companies, motor transport, road traffic, Mitropa and the GDR travel agency . The "Direction Magdeburg", comparable to the "Direction Schiffahrt" in Rostock, also looked after the inland shipping. The MDV ensured the care of the employees of the works and connecting railways by appointing connecting railway doctors with the necessary involvement in the medical requirements of the DR. These employees were also looked after in the MDV polyclinics when the local constellations were favorable. If it turned out to be beneficial, examinations by specially trained doctors from other directorates were also taken over. There were directorates in the polyclinics in the interior of the country that had a “shipping investigation center” for shipping and later for diving as part of the nationwide diver rescue system.

There were also regions where the MDV facilities provided outpatient medical care for the population in the catchment area, as there was a free choice of doctor. These included the polyclinics in Brandenburg-Kirchmöser and Leipzig-Engelsdorf. In the same way, many relatives of the transport workers saw MDV doctors as their trusted doctor when practicing close to home.

Sanatoriums in Bad Elster and Hartha, the children's sanatorium in Lubmin and the bed ward in the Clinic for Internal Performance and Transport Medicine in the Berlin-Buch Clinic took care of coordination in the event of a lack of fitness. In-patient assessments of borderline suitability cases were carried out in Berlin-Buch.

A special feature of the support provided by the MDV resulted from the divided Berlin. The Deutsche Reichsbahn also exercised the railway traffic rights in the French, English and American sectors ( West Berlin ). The railway workers living in West Berlin were insured under the social security system of the Free German Trade Union Federation ( FDGB ). To the company emergency services u. a. In the Reichsbahn repair works in Grunewald and Tempelhof, the polyclinic in the building of the Berlin Directorate on Schöneberger Ufer also belonged. There was also a specialist doctor, a pharmacy and initially even a ward. Most of the specialists came from the Central Institute for Traffic Medicine at Leipziger Straße 122. The MDV drivers drove the medication, the bandages and even took fresh rolls with them every day via the “Check Point” to the polyclinic on Schöneberger Ufer.

Vaccination centers existed for missions abroad and in the tropics, for example in the flight investigation center at Berlin-Schönefeld Airport. This was of particular benefit to the deep-sea fishermen from Fischfang Rostock (FFR), later Kombinat, as this was where the crew exchange for the fishing and processing vessels operating off Africa or in the South Atlantic took place.

The aviation medical service ensured that sick people were safely transported back from all parts of the world. Rescue and solidarity flights with medicines and aids for needy regions were also professionally accompanied. MDV doctors were often the first company doctors or tropical doctors on site at major construction sites in the transport sector in young nation states in Africa. The arriving ships of the Deutsche Seereederei Rostock (DSR) were always greeted with joy by the active MDV employees, as a local meal on board, black bread and beer as a way to eat away. The well-stocked on-board pharmacy on the DSR ships was also used by the active doctors when the construction sites were tight.

After 1949, the DR's railway medical service developed into an efficient and specially designed medical service for the entire GDR transport system. On December 31, 1989, the MDV had the following health facilities with 3,150 employees:

  • 19 company policlinics
  • 24 company outpatient departments
  • 339 medical services
  • 599 outpatient medical workplaces
  • 124 outpatient dental workplaces

In the same period, the MDV provided comprehensive occupational health care to 577,181 employees at 345,261 workplaces in all modes of transport. For this scope of support, the employees provided the following services:

  • 229,242 initial consultations
  • 1,061,807 consultations
  • 94,904 recruitment and initial examinations
  • 168,985 repeat examinations
  • 25,676 special examinations
  • 28,429 serial and preventive medical examinations
  • 2,130 site inspections
  • 9,956 workplace analyzes

A year later, on December 31, 1990, it was the last working day at MDV for all employees after more than 30 years. In the reunified Germany, no centrally managed health facility was planned.

literature

  • Wieg, Peter On the history of the Shipping Directorate of the Medical Service of Transport in the GDR
  • Mannchen, Klaus part 8 pages 69 - 70; Classification of the Shipping Directorate in the area of ​​responsibility of the whole of the MDV of the GDR , Schiffahrtsgeschichtliche Gesellschaft OSTSEE eV, Rostock 2006