After criticism of health officer Walthelm: changes are presented –
6 hours ago
Mayor Marcus König and health officer Britta Walthelm presented the new vaccination center in Nuremberg’s City-Point at the end of March. Vaccination vehicles will soon be rolling into the city districts.
18.05.2021
© Michael Matejka, NN
Mayor Marcus König and health officer Britta Walthelm presented the new vaccination center in Nuremberg’s City-Point at the end of March. Vaccination vehicles will soon be rolling into the city districts.
18.05.2021
Foto: Michael Matejka, NN
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Incorrect numbers in the corona statistics, withheld incidence values in individual districts: Nuremberg’s new health officer Britta Walthelm (Greens) has come under massive criticism after mistakes in her department. Mayor Marcus König (CSU) had to apologize publicly. But what is the reason for the big mess?
In the city council meeting this Wednesday, Britta Walthelm should be given enough time to explain the causes of the corona jumble, it says in the town hall. Because while in the neighboring city of Fürth no problems in dealing with incidences and the like have been reported so far, there have been problems in the health department in Nuremberg since the turn of the year. Partly massive.
Excitement in double count
At first, software problems falsified the transmission of the registered corona case numbers to the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL), and in the end the statistics did not match the actual events. It was like that again, this time accidental double counting caused a stir.
Where the incidences have long fallen elsewhere, it apparently went up in Nuremberg last week, which in turn enraged parents who feared the planned school openings. The professional city councilor Walthelm found it difficult to explain.
The parties assure in unison that their chair will not wobble under any circumstances, even if the Junge Union recently called for their resignation. But questions remain.
Under great pressure
Since taking office exactly one year ago, Walthelm has had to go through a special kind of “steel bath”, defends Achim Mletzko, leader of the Greens in the city council, from whose ranks the 40-year-old political scientist Walthelm comes. When she was elected with a majority from the CSU, SPD and Greens, “the pandemic was still at home in Wuhan,” says Mletzko. Shortly afterwards, she had to reorganize the health department under high pressure.
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The 80 full-time positions have now grown to 430 full-time positions, and employees at the airport and in the private sector have been assigned to follow up on contacts with corona infected people. The Bundeswehr is also helping. Mletzko said that the speaker had put her environmental policy goals aside and had to concentrate fully on the “exponential growth” of her department.
Comment: Walthelm has to deliver
Above all, however, he would like employees who enter the data of the reported corona cases into the system to do “a little more plausibility check”. This applies not only to the municipal health department, but also to the LGL, he adds.
Environment and health officer Britta Walthelm reports to the media about her visit to contact investigators who work for the health department.
18.05.2021
© Roland Fengler, NN
Environment and health officer Britta Walthelm reports to the media about her visit to contact investigators who work for the health department.
18.05.2021
Photo: Roland Fengler, NN
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Some of the Social Democrats see it similarly. “Now you have to help the speaker,” says the city councilor and health policy spokeswoman for the SPD, Jasmin Bieswanger, an intensive care nurse on a corona ward.
Walthelm may not have been able to penetrate the processes, especially in the health department. “When you start out in a crisis situation, getting to know one another is often neglected,” says Bieswanger.
Now the health sector is to be restructured: Head of Department Dr. Katja Günther should have staff on her side so that she can concentrate more on the pandemic issues. After several rounds of meetings with the city leaders, Walthelm will present the new structure to the city councils.
Lord Mayor spoke power word
SPD parliamentary group leader Thorsten Brehm had previously asked Walthelm to end the “secrecy” and finally to make the figures about the Corona situation in the districts public. Mayor Marcus König (CSU) decided without further ado that the speaker had to disclose the situation in the Wednesday meeting.
Clear criticism comes from Titus Schüller, City Councilor of the Left. The critics in the ranks of the CSU and SPD should remain silent, he railed, after all they had already known when Walthelm was elected that the candidate had no experience in the health sector or in administration and was also not qualified in the environmental sector.
