Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is not planning a law on the basis of which doctors, in the event of a lack of intensive care capacities, can discontinue treatments that have already been initiated in favor of patients whose chances of survival are better.

"Contrary to what is reported in some media, ex-post triage should not be made possible," a spokesman for the minister said on Monday.

The procedure is ethically and legally highly controversial.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Lauterbach also rejects this approach, as he said on Monday: “Ex-post triage is ethically unacceptable and neither doctors, patients nor relatives can be expected.

That's why we won't allow it either." Even the prioritization before the start of care, the "ex-ante triage", should only be possible under strict conditions.

You have to “illuminate the gray area of ​​​​medical decisions in the pandemic” in order to comply with the requirements of the Federal Constitutional Court.

Disabled people should be protected

In December, the judges called for clear triage rules to protect disabled people.

"We will present a corresponding draft law shortly," announced Lauterbach.

Triage was a “real danger, but never everyday life” during the Corona period.

The protection efforts and the transfer of patients have guaranteed good patient care: "It should remain so in the future."

That sounded different in a draft law by the Ministry of Health on Thursday.

He is supposed to regulate the triage and is available to the FAZ.

The "allocation decision" to be made also refers to "already allocated treatment capacities".

The justification states explicitly that "ex-post triage is also possible without criminal sanctions".

According to reports, ex-post triage was only included in the draft at the insistence of Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP).

Since Lauterbach rejects them, he anchored particularly high, "unrealizable" conditions in the draft - such as the requirement that the decision must be made by three instead of two particularly qualified doctors.

However, since the Minister of Health also got the displeasure of disabled and welfare organizations and also the Greens, the ex-post option is now to be completely removed from the law.

Caritas criticized on Monday: "The practical, ethical and social consequences of admissibility of ex-post triage are fatal."

Actually, a viable draft should have been available for a long time, but the project had also been postponed because of the disagreements between the departments.

The election in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday obviously plays a role here, before which neither the FDP nor the SPD want to make unpopular decisions.

That's why the amendment to health insurance financing, which Lauterbach announced several times, is not yet ready, according to Berlin.