Sunday, January 09, 2022
Lauterbach delimitation displeased
The CDU and the left are calling for a care bonus for everyone
After a 22-month pandemic, the nursing staff should finally receive a corona bonus. In order for the sum to be significant, Health Minister Lauterbach especially wants to consider the staff of Covid stations. This approach seems understandable, but it attracts loud criticism.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach encounters opposition from the CDU and the Left Party with his plan to limit the planned care bonus to a certain group of care workers. Anyone who brings special payments for nursing staff into play should avoid wanting to allow them to only a narrowly limited group of this profession, said the designated CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja the “Tagesspiegel”. If politicians decide to want to pay a bonus after 22 months of the pandemic, then “the full first front” of the health care system should receive the money. Czaja is honorary president of the German Red Cross in Berlin and was health senator there until 2016.
The Left Party in the Bundestag also opposes Lauterbach’s plans. The deputy parliamentary group leader Susanne Ferschl told the “Tagesspiegel”: “A care bonus would have to be paid to all caregivers.” Because the pandemic is an unbelievable burden for intensive care workers through to outpatient care services. “This unspeakable differentiation led to a lot of frustration and annoyance when the last bonus was paid out.”
Lauterbach had previously stated that the care bonus should primarily be paid to care workers who were particularly stressed in the corona pandemic. “Then the bonus can also be set in a significant amount,” the minister told the editorial network in Germany. This is the only way to appreciate the special performance of nursing staff, some of whom have also “taken personal risk”.
“Splits the workforce”
The board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, warned: “It would be a serious mistake to pay the bonus only to nursing staff who looked after Covid-19 patients. That divides the workforce.” In addition, the impression arises that the commitment to heart, cancer or stroke patients is of less value. The traffic light coalition must counter this impression immediately.
The SPD, Greens and FDP have stated in their coalition agreement that there should be a corona bonus for care workers. For this, the traffic light government wants to provide one billion euros and increase the tax exemption for bonus payments to 3000 euros.