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Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach: "A medium-sized catastrophe is approaching us"
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has warned of an impending shortage of doctors in the coming years.
He calls on the countries to create more medical school places to alleviate the problem.
“We are facing a medium-sized catastrophe in terms of the range of doctors,” said the SPD politician on Thursday evening on the ZDF program “Markus Lanz – The Year 2022”.
"We need 5,000 additional medical students, otherwise we won't be able to adequately provide for the baby boomer generation."
You have to act now because the training takes ten years.
A place on the course costs 200,000 euros
There are currently a good 11,600 medical study places per year in Germany.
Since 2017, the number has increased by around 800 places - too few, according to medical representatives.
In recent years they have repeatedly called for the number of places to be increased.
"I'll approach the countries, I've tried several times," announced Lauterbach on the show.
The federal states complained about a lack of staff and at the same time were not willing to pay for the additional costs of training.
Lauterbach put the costs at 200,000 euros per place.
A glitch in Frankfurt am Main in the summer showed how much applicants fight for every place.
The Goethe University had reported too many free places to the central agency for medical study places.
As a result, almost 300 additional applicants were admitted.
When the error was noticed, the approval notifications that had already been sent were withdrawn.
In order to help those affected, the university, the state ministries of education and the foundation that coordinates the admissions struggled for weeks to find a solution.
At the end of September, the Goethe University announced that all those affected could be offered a place at the university.
kfr/dpa
