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In the middle of the second wave, the federal government thwarted RKI’s personnel plan
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The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, urgently needs IT specialists. But politics thwarted his plans
Credit: AFP / MARKUS SCHREIBER
RKI’s staff council has been warning politicians for years: the authority urgently needs more IT specialists, otherwise the technical update against infectious diseases like Covid-19 would fall by the wayside. But instead of the 68 positions requested, the institute now only gets four.
reThe federal government denied the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) a staff increase that was urgently needed during the second Corona wave. Specifically, it concerns RKI’s IT department, which was drastically understaffed before Corona. As a result of the pandemic, you have been tasked with a host of new tasks, such as taking care of the Corona warning app, the online portal for infection numbers, and the intensive care bed registry.
According to information from WELT AM SONNTAG, the Bundestag budget committee approved the RKI for the IT sector at the end of November only four new posts, out of the 68 that the institute had requested.
The parliamentary commission thus approved a federal government project. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance did not want to comment on the reasons. Karl Lauterbach, SPD health expert in the Bundestag, demanded: “The RKI staff budget for IT tasks must be increased immediately.” Otherwise, the RKI would not be able to accomplish its many tasks quickly enough. “We really can’t afford to save here right now.”
If the RKI were technically better positioned, it could report to the federal government more quickly and accurately on the progress of the pandemic. This could allow them to take faster and more targeted measures to contain Corona.
Andrew Ullmann, chairman of the FDP parliamentary group on the health committee, said the pandemic shows that the institute’s IT department has been under-equipped for years. “Now we will get the receipt for the pandemic,” says Ullmann. Reports by fax, telephone quarantine checks and paperwork are responsible for health authorities “threatening to overload” even with a comparatively low number of cases.
The full text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to take them to your home periodically.
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Source: Welt am Sonntag
