Physician supply

Shortage of doctors describes a situation in the health system in which the demand for medical services exceeds scarce supply. The opposite situation, in which more medical manpower available in the labor market is in demand, is called glut of doctors. The ratios exhibit differences by region and by subject. For example, the ratio of established physicians are considered health policy to residents in rural areas to be too low. Shortages in medical care may represent consequences of this relationship.

The Federal Employment Agency reported in January 2007 on a shortage of physicians in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, UK, France, Netherlands, Ireland and the Slovak Republic. In 2002, the first time in Germany was spoken by a shortage of doctors.

Situation in Germany

The relative number of physicians is not a sufficient criterion to define a shortage of doctors. Thus, the density of physicians in Germany compared with 3.4 practicing physicians per 1000 inhabitants is high ( OECD average: 3.0 ). While in other countries, a full-time equivalent is used to calculate these figures are missing for Germany. The number of physicians in Germany is continuously increasing for several decades. The end of 2012 there were, according to the German Medical Association 348 695 working physicians, which were 1.9 percent more than in 2011. Since 2002 the number has increased by 15.8 percent. Goods in 1997 9,396 doctors registered as unemployed, the number of unemployed doctors in 2007 dropped to 3,686.

After the case brought by the Kiel surgeon Norbert Jaeger judgment of the European Court of Justice ( ECJ), which confirmed the emergency service of hospital doctors as working time, was expected in 2003, with an additional requirement of up to 27,000 physicians in the German Hospital Association, and up to 15,000 physicians in the Marburger Bund and the German Medical Association.

A study by the German Medical Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians from 2010 shows the following aspects:

• The average age of both the contract and clinicians continuously increases, while the total number of medical students and graduates decreases. After graduating 12 percent of the graduates work not curative.
• The growing proportion of women ( 33.6 percent in 1991 to 42.2 percent in 2009, 60 percent of medical students are now women) lists among its fewer full-time positions, as women often face intense family responsibilities.
• In Germany, many practitioners find no successor; many physician offices in rural areas, but also in large cities can no longer be occupied, most notably the new federal states are affected. This means that the German health care system is increasingly dependent on the recruitment of foreign doctors, mainly from Eastern Europe and Austria. An attempt to solve this problem is to Rothenburg model.
• Due to the demographic development of the population and the concomitant conversion of the morbidity spectrum and the expansion of multimorbidity an increased number of physicians in the future is necessary. Even medical progress leads to higher treatment costs and increasing physicians needed.

The study concludes that the medical education more practical and the working conditions of doctors would have to be made more attractive (particularly appropriate fee, less regulation and bureaucracy ). The medical profession must especially for doctors, family -friendly and are designed more young doctors are obtained for the profession of the family doctor. The Institute of the German economy, however, sees 2025 no shortage. The immigration of foreign doctors with at least 31,000 foreign-trained doctors has an additional positive effect, so that more doctors continue to be designed as a stop.

To counteract a shortage of rural doctors, the government wants to increase in a new ' power law ' the income of rural doctors.

Emigration of German doctors

Young doctors partially migrate from abroad; In 2010, a total of 17,000 doctors working abroad. The exodus of doctors working in Germany in recent years was about 2,560 annually. According to the Federal Chamber of Physicians around 16,000 doctors have emigrated between 2001 and 2008. More than 3,000 doctors left Germany in 2008, while around 10,000 graduating her medical studies in the same year. The balance of immigration and emigration remains strongly negative.

Opposite position of the health insurance

The results of this study, the source of which are medical interest groups, are controversial. So go health insurance, as the AOK assume that there is no shortage of doctors, but only a spatial maldistribution of physicians.