From February Jens Spahn’s plans to restructure the Ministry of Health come into force. In the future, there will be a new department 6, which will be responsible for health security, health protection, climate, and sustainability. The Federal Minister of Health has not yet announced who will head the department.
In addition, Department 4 will only deal with nursing care and will transfer previous tasks such as prevention and health promotion to Department 3. Birgit Naase will, however, remain as head of the department. Previously, Department 3 was responsible for health protection, medical and professional law, and will receive an expanded range of tasks thanks to the additional areas. The new head of the department will be Joachim Becker, who has headed Department 2 since mid-2019. This department will retain the tasks of health and medical care, but will also be newly staffed by Spahn’s former chief of staff Sonja Optendrenk. In the future, Spahn’s staff will be led by Susanne Wald, former head of department 3.
Department 1 (drug safety) and Department 5 (digitization) will remain unaffected by the reorganization measures.
