Overview
- After winning 15 minutes of airtime on Nov. 26, the duo aired a Nov. 27 short documentary from Berlin’s Evangelisches Waldkrankenhaus Spandau focusing on the work of midwives.
- The segment highlighted criticisms of the Hebammenhilfevertrag in force since Nov. 1, including minute-based billing, reduced rates for hospital-based freelance midwives, and higher administrative burdens.
- The broadcast and subsequent reports said around half of freelance hospital midwives plan to resign in the coming months, with local cases such as all 11 midwives quitting at Helios Klinik Rottweil, threatening delivery room services.
- Viewers were directed to the #nichtohnehebamme petition on openpetition.de, which experienced brief outages under heavy traffic and had surpassed 160,000 signatures by Friday morning.
- The GKV-Spitzenverband has defended the contract as a major advance, citing a 30% rise to €74 per hour, while professional groups and surveys report widespread concern about care quality and viability of the work.