Health department
The health department is as active -site authority part of the public health service.
We distinguish state ( there are, for example, in Baden -Württemberg and Bavaria incorporated into the district offices ) and municipal health departments or health authorities. In Germany, numerous municipal health departments since 2001 have been renamed to " professional service health care ", others are in the district administration offices and not to say more " health authority " but "Department" or " subject area Health Care "; also " lower health authority " is found as a name. Refer to the laws of the states on their public health service.
The directors of a public health department or a health specialist service is usually perceived by a medical officer.
Tasks
The tasks of the public health service are many. They are perceived locally by the health authorities. These tasks may differ to state in their centers of gravity of the state. They are determined by federal laws, state laws and regulations and to a lesser extent by EU legislation (eg monitoring of EU bathing water ).
The tasks are often perceived in different departments of a health department:
- Official Medical Services
- Child and Adolescent Medical Service
- Children and youth dental service ( not in every state )
- Health monitoring, epidemiology
- Health Promotion
- AIDS counseling
- Implementation of the Infection Protection Act
- Hygiene Monitoring
- Environmental Medicine
- Social Psychiatric Service
- Pregnancy and pregnancy conflict counseling
- Official Medical examination before admission to the medical practitioner profession
The tasks include the monitoring of compliance with hygiene regulations in certain enterprises, but also the hygiene monitoring of so-called community facilities (schools, kindergartens, nursing homes, etc. ), and the " monitoring" of the ordered measures ( distribution of samples, etc. ). These tasks are i.d.R. perceived by hygiene inspectors.
A hygienic monitoring for the following facilities ( in the individual Länder regulated differently ):
- Residential and nursing homes
- Short -term care facilities day Care
- Massage Parlours
- Sauna commercial
- Solarium commercial
- Tattoo and Piercing Studios
- Gyms
- Community Facilities train
- Daycare
- Outdoor swimming pools
- Indoor Pools
- EC Bathing Water
- Swimming holes
- Water supply systems central drinking water systems
- Drinking water supply system self-
- Thermal springs
- Village wells / fountains running
- Residential potable water public
- Mobile drinking water supply
The hygiene monitoring principle applies only to the hygienic conditions for the people of the listed facilities. Must be distinguished from food hygiene and food control, which are perceived by specially trained personnel. Only in individual municipalities these tasks or the tasks of the Veterinary summarizes organizational with the Health Department.
Some of the above tasks have been privatized in some states, while others are only partially or not assigned as a task to the health authorities, so that the powers of the state can be different from the state.
Other responsibilities include conducting investigations for extensions of a driving license from 50 years ( this is not in all states ), the school entrance examinations in children prior to school entry through the Child and Youth Health Service ( KJGD ), help for mentally ill people ( social psychiatric services), the help for drug and health information, the information and advice of the population as well as the support of the health self-help groups.
The involvement and partly also coordinating line of activities for the detection of child endangerment, such as the control of participation in the screening (U1 to U9/J1 for children) together with the youth welfare offices and the involvement of pediatricians is one of the newer functions of the EGD in some states.
Other new functions of the public health departments include health monitoring and in North Rhine- Westphalia enshrined in law for the Public Health Service Health conferences. They are an expression of the reform of public health departments and contribute to that essential parts of the control of health care at the local level is possible.
Are legal basis for the work of health authorities in most countries in recent years, newly adopted state health laws and legislation at the federal level as the Infection Protection Act and the Drinking Water Ordinance. In it the framework for the work of public health departments are set.