Lack of junior staff Many family doctors without successors

Lack of junior staff: Many family physicians can not find successors

08/07/2014

According to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Baden-Württemberg (KVBW), the aging of GPs in the coming years will lead to a massive shortage of physicians. For patients, this means that they will have to become much more mobile in the future.

Only every third family doctor finds a successor
According to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Baden-Württemberg (KVBW), the aging of general practitioners will lead to a massive shortage of physicians. According to a dpa report, KVBW's CEO, Norbert Metke, said in Stuttgart: „Over the next five years, 1,600 GPs will retire, with only one in three finding a replacement.“ Therefore, he sees a supply gap of 500 to 1,000 resident physicians on the land. Metke emphasized: „The world will change. Patients will need to be more mobile.“ Although the number of general practitioner exams increased slightly in 2013 to 140 (2012: 112), this could not prevent bottlenecks.

Ministry of Social Affairs warns of one „unnecessary dramatization“
A shortage is when a doctor needs to take care of 2,100 inhabitants or more. The supply is currently still good and so warned the Ministry of Social Affairs before one „unnecessary dramatization“ the situation. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Social Affairs also sees the need to lure with perks. For example, there is the action program for land physicians, under which 700,000 euros were distributed to 34 applicants in the past two years. In addition to individual practices, the applicants included branches, joint practices and medical care centers.

Pension gaps will increase dramatically by 2020
Also nationwide, the situation does not look rosy. As recently announced, a representative survey of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV) and the NAV-Virchow-Bund has revealed that a quarter of GPs and GPs in Germany will give up their practice in the next five years. Since many would find no successors, and as a result the number of practices will decline significantly overall, the looming supply gaps, especially in rural areas, could increase dramatically by 2020. (Ad)