Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) will soon set the course for nationwide health kiosks.
It is about low-threshold care offers in social hotspots, as Lauterbach said on Wednesday in Berlin.
There are already such health insurance facilities in individual cities such as Hamburg, Cologne or Essen.
These concepts have proven to be very effective, said the Minister of Health.
According to Lauterbach, appointments with family doctors or specialists can be made in the health kiosks, and there can also be help with translation or offers such as nutritional advice.
The kiosks are one of a number of projects that Lauterbach wants to push ahead with an “intermediate spurt” before the next corona wave is expected in autumn.
Cannabis legalization bill coming soon
In the course of this, Lauterbach also wants to launch a legislative initiative for the legalization of cannabis planned by the traffic light coalition.
He admitted that he had long been opposed to this project, but that he had now changed his mind.
The damage caused by non-legalization, for example through the sale of contaminated material, appears to be greater than a controlled levy.
"We will present a draft law on this in the second half of the year," emphasized the Minister of Health.
The health kiosks, like cannabis legalization, are part of projects that the SPD, Greens and FDP laid down in the coalition agreement last year.
The minister also wants to use the summer to advance digitization in the health authorities.
800 million euros are available for this, which only have to be called up, said Lauterbach.
Deficiencies in the technical equipment of the local health authorities have always been considered an obstacle to combating the corona pandemic.