Medical officer

The competent authority is obliged to set up a specialised medical service for the performance of its public health service tasks. In Lower Saxony, all doctors who work in these specialist medical services and have completed special training in the field of public health are regarded as medical officers. (In the past, on the other hand, the medical management of the municipal health authorities was usually referred to as the medical officer.)

An essential task is to carry out medical examinations and assessments and to prepare expert opinions, certificates and certificates on them. In many legal provisions, an official medical examination is expressly required. Often they are also commissioned if this is not expressly required. One of the reasons for this is that public health officers are characterised by their special independence and their special additional expertise in the field of public administration. They act on behalf of other authorities as well as private individuals.

Public health officers carry out other activities, for example in the areas of health prevention, infection protection and environmental hygiene.

Examples of official medical activities and examinations on behalf of authorities:

• Recruitment examinations of candidates for the civil service
• Determination of fitness for health for the exercise of certain professions
• Capacity for service of civil servants
• Ability to work of employees in the public sector
• Appraisals according to the Social Code - Twelfth Book (SGB XII)
• Determination of the medical necessity of remedies and aids as well as cures and sanatorium cures for public employees
• Assessment of liability, ability to negotiate, culpability, ability to work/earn, legal support for courts
• Determination of the fitness of persons to travel, e.g. for courts and immigration authorities
• Determination of fitness to drive motor vehicles
• Determination of the need for long-term care according to the Social Code - Eleventh Book (SGB XI)

Examples of official medical activities and examinations on behalf of private individuals:

• Students: waiver of tuition fees for health reasons
• Students: Determination of inability to take examinations for health reasons
• Students: Extension of the submission deadline for the diploma thesis due to illness / certificate of the need for a cure for the tax office
• Certificate of the need for a cure for the tax office