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Aging physicians Over 26 percent of physicians are over 60 years old
The medical profession is increasingly being affected by an aging population. "In 2013, 65 percent of physicians in medical practices were at least 50 years old", according to the latest communication from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden. More than a quarter (26 percent) of the doctors were even older than 60 years. Accordingly, demographic change is also becoming increasingly noticeable in the healthcare sector.
Not only among the medical profession, but also among psychotherapists and psychotherapists, the age group of at least 50-year-olds a high proportion (69 percent). In addition, 50% of dentists, including orthodontists, are over 50 years of age. Of the approximately 5.1 million health care workers, a total of 36 percent would have reached the age of 50 in 2013, reports the Federal Statistical Office.
A quarter of physicians in 2013 were older than 60 years. (Image: Robert Kneschke / fotolia.com) One hundred thousand additional health workers
The Federal Statistical Office's analysis also shows that the number of employees in the healthcare sector has increased by a total of 106,000 (+2.1 percent) compared to the previous year. According to Destatis, extra jobs were "mainly in the occupations of health care and nursing, ambulance and obstetrics (+29,000 or +3.0 percent), elderly care (+21,000 or +4.1 percent), medical and practical help ( +19,000 or +3.2 percent) and non-medical therapy and medicine (+15,000 or +4.2 percent) ". With 12,000 (+4.2 percent) additional employees, outpatient care was able to record a significantly higher increase than inpatient and semi-stationary care (+7,000 or +1.0 percent)..
Below-average job growth in the medical profession
Personnel in practices of other medical professions (here, for example, physiotherapists and occupational therapists) also posted above-average growth (+14,000 or +3.2 percent), "Destatis continues. On the other hand, there was a below-average increase in employment among doctors' practices (+6,000 or +1.0 percent) and in hospitals (+17,000 or +1.6 percent). Of the total of 5.1 million health workers employed, half were full-time employees in 2013, 35 percent worked part-time and 15 percent were in marginal employment, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The number of so-called full-time employees (employees converted to the full standard working time) was around 3.7 million in 2013, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Thus, in 2013, around 65,000 full-time employees were more active than in the previous year (+1.8 percent) in the healthcare sector.
Demarcation of health workers
The data base of the current evaluation was the basic revised health-care bill of the Federal Statistical Office. Healthcare demarcation was based on the concept of the "System of Health Accounts", which was set up by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) international comparability is recommended, according to the Federal Statistical Office. According to this definition, health, social or environmental activities have been included "if they serve primarily to safeguard, prevent or restore health." (Fp)