Status: 05/06/2022 12:38 p.m
A good four months after the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, the federal government is still struggling to come up with a triage regulation. A draft is still being voted on. Apparently there is a proposal from Minister of Health Lauterbach.
If capacities are scarce in a pandemic, it should be possible in the future to interrupt intensive care treatment in favor of a patient with a higher chance of survival. According to information from the editorial network Germany (RND), this emerges from a legislative proposal by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) for the protection of people with disabilities in a so-called triage situation.
The Federal Constitutional Court had demanded a corresponding law. According to the proposed law, the so-called “ex-post triage” should only be permitted if three specialists with intensive care medicine make the decision by mutual agreement.
According to the draft, the approval of two medical specialists is sufficient for “ex ante triage”, in which the decision on treatment has to be made between several newly admitted patients in a situation of scarce medical capacities.
Ministry: Draft still in coordination
In principle, according to the draft drawn up by Lauterbach for the coalition factions, when allocating insufficient, vital, intensive care medical treatment capacities in hospitals, no one may, for “reasons of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, a disability, age or of sexual identity are disadvantaged,” the report continues.
The Federal Ministry of Health did not confirm the information. The draft is still in the departmental vote, said a spokesman at the request of several news agencies.
Response to judgment from Karlsruhe
With the draft law, the coalition is reacting to a judgment by the Federal Constitutional Court in December last year. The judges had ordered the government to take immediate precautions to protect disabled people during pandemic-related triage. Otherwise, it is to be feared that they would be disadvantaged in the allocation of intensive care treatment resources, the judges explained. Several people with disabilities and previous illnesses had complained.
So far, the rules for triage have been set by the medical societies themselves. The state stayed out of the sensitive issue. The Bundestag must then decide on the regulation.