When the country doctor retires: Bavarian village is looking for a successor via YouTube
Created: 04/23/2022, 11:57 am
By: Thomas Eldersch
Country doctor Alfred Schuller retires.
Now the whole village is looking for a successor - with the help of YouTube videos.
© Screenshots YouTube Kirchensittenbach needs a doctor
More and more medical practices are closing in rural areas.
The country doctor stopped working in Kirchensittenbach too.
Now they are looking for a successor in a creative way.
Kirchensittenbach – The Free State of Bavaria is running out of country doctors.
This realisation is not new.
It has been known for years that many doctors in rural areas are about to retire or have already retired.
Finding successors is not always easy.
Only a few young, newly trained doctors are drawn to the countryside.
A problem that also has Kirchensittenbach (Nuremberg Land district).
Here they got creative in the search for a new doctor.
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Kirchensittenbach is looking for a doctor: YouTube videos should lure successors
A total of nine YouTube videos can already be found on the specially created page “Kirchensittenbach needs a doctor”.
The youngest a few hours old, the oldest just under a month.
The outgoing country doctor Alfred Schuller himself speaks in that one. The 65-year-old wants to retire, but not without finding a suitable successor.
According to BR, he started the advertising campaign for his village with a photographer friend.
Followers of the idea were quickly found and more videos were added.
Among others, the local theater association, the butcher and the mayor took part in the campaign.
Town hall boss Klaus Albrecht (free voters) also hopes for a new family doctor for his 2120 citizens, spread over 21 districts.
"We urgently need a doctor," says his video, which lasts about a minute.
He wants to lure potential successors with the old sales ploy of the tourism industry “work where others go on vacation”.
A local doctor is worth its weight in gold, especially for older patients who are no longer quite as mobile.
"You can get there quickly," says the Kirchensittenbacher Hort Scheffel the BR.
If no successor can be found, the patients would have to go to Hersbruck.
That is about a quarter of an hour from Kirchensittenbach.
Another citizen, Lenka Courtenay, appreciates the commitment of family doctor Schuller.
"Our Doctor Schuller takes the time to make house calls, that's worth a lot."
Kirchensittenbach is looking for a doctor: Country doctor rate comes too late
But why is it so difficult for many rural communities to find doctors?
Young physicians are often tired of committing themselves to a practice for life, especially if it is far from the beaten track.
Financial risks also play a role.
In order to make the path to the country palatable to medical students, there has been the so-called country doctor quota in Bavaria since 2020.
The Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) says:
With the country doctor quota created by the Bavarian Country and Official Doctors Act (BayLArztG), up to 5.8% of all medical study places available each year at Bavarian faculties are allocated in advance for applicants who have a special interest in general practitioner work in rural areas express. This special interest is expressed by the contractual obligation to undergo further training after completing your studies as a specialist in general medicine or specialist in internal medicine in Bavaria and after acquiring the specialist title in an area in Bavaria that is underserved or threatened by undersupply (= area of need) for a period of ten years as a general practitioner or employed doctor.
For Schuller, however, the state program is of little help.
"They're just ten years too late.
When the country doctors eventually finish their studies, all practices have long since given up," he says resignedly to the BR.
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