Zivilschutz- Forschung - Schutzkommission

The questionnaire was mailed to all lower catastrophe prevention officers of the
Federal Republic of Germany (number n = 438) at the end of August 2001. All
responses were processed anonymously.
Overall, responses were received from n = 338 contacted catastrophe prevention
officers. With regard to integration of GPHS physicians into their catastrophe preparedness
plans, 12 (3.5 %) districts and cities report that they do not have any
integration of the GPHS physicians. The most frequent way of integration is indicated
as integration into management of individual cases with 50.6 % of answers.
A permanent integration into all catastrophe preparedness and notification plans
or the existence of an on-call protocol for GPHS physicians is reported by only
19.6 % resp. 12.8 % of respondents.
The current integration of the GPHS physicians into the catastrophe prevention and
preparedness plans is centered mainly around situations of epidemic infectious
diseases, with special plans for diseases of individual patients and officially
acknowledged catastrophes. Almost 60 % of respondents indicate experiences in
concerted and coordinated actions with GPHS physicians during simulated scenarios
or real disaster management. This cooperation is judged as very good in 44 –
56% by respondents. With regard to the integration of the GPHS physicians into
the medical care in catastrophes and disasters, the catastrophe prevention officers
primarily expect comprehensive information about symptoms, therapeutic measures,
and organisational responses to cope with radioactive, biological, chemical,
and epidemic infectious disease incidents. The catastrophe prevention officers also
wish to receive general pieces of medical information as well as information about
strategic plans for management procedures within the lower public health service
authorities from the GPHS physicians. According to the opinion of the catastrophe
prevention officers of the districts and district-free cities, training in catastrophe
and disaster medicine should be massively strengthened within the postgraduate
education for the boards of public health service physicians.
3.5 Concepts for an Improved Training and Postgraduate Education of
Physicians in the German Public Health Service
To enhance the knowledge and skills relevant for medical care in catastrophes and
disasters within the German public health service, a modular training concept with
teaching contents of catastrophe medicine is proposed. It consists of the following
modules:
• Medical school
• Postgraduate education for the boards of public health physicians
• Facultative training
• Personal, self-motivated gain of information
In medical school, a long-lived and effective solution can be achieved by implementation
of an independent lecture series on “Catastrophe Medicine”. Here, the
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