Köpping calls for emergency power supply for care homes too

After the days-long power outage in Berlin, Saxony's Health Minister Petra Köpping (SPD) is also calling for a nationwide obligation to provide emergency power for nursing homes. Köpping told the Sächsische Zeitung and Leipziger Volkszeitung newspapers that while it was clear which generators could be used in which places in hospitals, this was not known for each individual facility in nursing homes. "We will look into how we can actually get an overview and sensitize care facilities to this issue."

Nursing homes not a critical infrastructure

It is true that the law states that emergency power generators must also be provided as part of emergency plans. "But it is not an obligation," said Köpping. It would be necessary to consider whether this could be changed nationwide. Unlike hospitals, nursing homes are not legally considered critical infrastructure. However, the Federal Office of Civil Protection recommends that they should also be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours.

In many cases, around 100,000 people in 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses as well as hospitals and care homes were without power for days due to an arson attack on a cable bridge on January 3, allegedly carried out by left-wing extremists. Residents of several nursing homes had to be temporarily relocated to other facilities.