A new online search engine called “Pflegefinder” is intended to make it easier to access care offers across Bavaria. According to Bavaria’s Health Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU), almost 900 outpatient and inpatient facilities are connected. In addition, around 200 advisory services can be found. According to data from the State Statistical Office, there are a total of significantly more than 4,000 care facilities in the Free State.
The minister explained that she was encouraging as many providers as possible to take part. The “care finder” is “the first important step towards a comprehensive Bavaria-wide offer”. When users enter a zip code or city name, offers in the area are listed. The care facilities that the search engine displays are divided into the categories “not available”, “availability on request” and “available” according to a traffic light system. Interested parties must clarify directly with the providers marked as “available” whether they can get a place there.
The online platform was developed by the Berlin-based private company Recare. It will receive funding totaling 291,000 euros over several years for its development work. When the funding decision was handed over in March 2023, the then Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) spoke of a “unique project in Germany” with which Bavaria was taking on a “pioneering role”.
The social association VdK sees the online platform as “a beginning” that needs to be expanded further. The VdK criticizes the fact that whether facilities report care offers is voluntary. The relatives organization “We Care” also calls for providers to be obliged to list open care places in the “Care Finder”. In addition, a care exchange “cannot compensate for the serious deficits in the care infrastructure,” emphasizes the “We Care” association.
The Federal Association of Private Providers of Social Services (BPA), however, supports the state government’s approach that offers are only posted voluntarily on the online exchange. At the same time, the Bavarian state branch of the employers’ association emphasizes that the main problem is “not the provision of care, but the availability of skilled workers and workers”. The new care exchange could help “to reduce the administrative burden in care facilities because supply and demand are brought together online,” explains the BPA.