As of: February 8, 2024, 9:41 a.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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The professional group of medical assistants has existed in Germany for around 60 years.
Now medical assistants are stopping their work for the first time.
Munich - This Thursday, patients nationwide have to expect longer waiting times in doctors' practices.
Or that they remain completely closed.
The Association of Medical Professionals (vmf) has announced a strike by staff in medical practices for today.
Across the country, the vmf called on around 330,000 medical assistants to stop their work, as the
AFP
news agency reported.
For the practice staff in Germany, it is the first warning strike ever in the professional group's 60-year existence.
With it, the employees want to emphasize their demands for more pay and better working conditions.
As a result of the warning strike, it can be assumed that “everything will take a little longer,” said a spokeswoman for the Association of Medical Professionals (vmf).
Because of the strike, it is now up to the doctors to carry out the tasks of their employees.
The strike could affect the organization of the practice, appointments, blood samples and much more.
After train drivers, Lufthansa airport staff and public transport workers, medical assistants are now also drawing attention to their situation.
Within a few weeks there will be the next strike that consumers will have to prepare for.
Medical assistants on strike: Staff demands higher wages in collective bargaining
The reason for the nationwide warning strike by medical assistants, as medical assistants, is a collective bargaining dispute between them and the medical profession.
After three years of training, the starting wage for this professional group is 13.22 per hour - and therefore only slightly above the minimum wage.
Employees of medical practices in tariff group I earn around 2,200 euros gross per month.
The last collective agreement between the vmf and the practicing doctors expired at the end of 2023.
At the start of collective bargaining in November, the vmf called for a salary increase of 14.6 percent - regardless of professional experience and the specific job group to which employees belong.
The medical profession then offered the specialists an average salary increase of 5.5 percent.
But that's not enough for the industry association.
For comparison: Qualified nursing assistants with at least one year of training, for example in a hospital, will receive a minimum wage of 16.50 euros from May.
For comparison: Health insurance companies that train social insurance clerks pay their trainees 17 euros per hour over three years.
Larger strikers' rallies are planned today in Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nuremberg and Marburg.
Medical assistants are increasingly under pressure - they are demanding better working conditions
At the beginning of the year, medical practices received an increase of around four percent in the funds available to them.
If one assumes an increase in wages for medical assistants of around 5.5 percent, "that's a balancing act," as Erik Bodendieck, negotiator for the employers, explained to
ZDF Today
.
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In addition to pay, the workload of medical assistants is also a matter of discussion.
This continues to grow, while it becomes more difficult to make appointments and medical assistants often have to deal with the frustration of some patients.
In addition, there is more and more overtime, emphasizes the VMF.
The work of the art helpers is sometimes carried out under enormous time pressure, explains Hannelore König from the VMF.
“The stress on medical assistants in their everyday practice is actually very high because their processes are often disrupted.
And unfortunately, since the pandemic, we have also seen that patients are becoming more and more demanding,” König told
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
(MDR).
The medical profession emphasizes the problems of financing the claims of medical assistants
But there are also voices within the umbrella association of medical specialists (SpiFa) who understand the demands of medical assistants.
This includes CEO Dirk Heinrich: “It is quite remarkable that the statutory health insurance companies pay their social insurance specialists – including three-year apprenticeships, like the MFA – significantly higher salaries than they always want to grant us in the negotiations,” he explained to
MDR.
In this respect, he is in favor of the medical assistants achieving a proper collective bargaining agreement in collective bargaining.
“We will of course have to pass this pressure on to the health insurance companies, because they will have to refinance it in the end,” explains Heinrich.
A doctor's office closed due to strikes © IMAGO
Erik Bodendieck from the working group to regulate the working conditions of medical assistants (AAA) also sees a problem with financing.
“Medical practices are also subject to normal cost increases.
“We have received an additional four percent from the health insurance companies for this year, and when a salary increase of between 12 and 17 percent is demanded for the MFA, that simply doesn’t work,” he told MDR
.
After the doctors' dispute at the end of 2023, this is the second large-scale dispute in doctors' practices within a few weeks
.
(Fabian Hartmann)