Patient protection advocates are urgently calling for better safeguarding of vulnerable and care-dependent individuals against heatwaves, emphasizing the role of aid organizations such as the Technical Relief Agency (THW). Eugen Brysch, the board member of the Patientenschutz Foundation, criticized the federal and state levels, stating that “Bund and Länder [the government and states] are not doing anything to handle the climate catastrophe taking place in the 12,000 care facilities.” He stressed that protective measures are urgently needed to ensure room temperatures do not exceed 25 degrees Celsius, though he acknowledged that such structural changes will take years.
Brysch argued that older, sick, and care-dependent people cannot afford to wait for long-term changes, calling for aid organizations to be quickly equipped and able to provide support. Currently, coordination for disaster relief is lacking during the heatwave, both for high-aged people at home and residents in nursing homes. He noted that while regions, districts, and municipalities “do” have the legal right-at both federal and local levels-to draw upon the expertise, technology, and equipment of aid organizations during natural catastrophes, this necessary coordinated emergency help is absent during the current heat emergency.
The forms of assistance could be diverse, according to Brysch. This support could involve running errands, transporting patients to doctor’s offices or pharmacies, or providing psychosocial and personal assistance within nursing facilities. He was clear that this assistance must never replace fundamental direct care provided by professional caregivers.
Even the Federal Technical Relief Agency could help mitigate the crisis. Brysch pointed out that the THW has the capacity to provide cooling and shading in specific rooms, provided the federal government supplies enough mobile air conditioning units for the purpose.
