The German government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz is counting on general practitioners, called "family doctors" in Germany, to help reduce the strain on the healthcare system in the future. However, this plan is unlikely to work, given that one in four specialists in this field intend to give up their private practice in the next five years.
Shortage of general practitioners by 2030
This fact leads to the conclusion that Germany will soon face a serious shortage of doctors capable of providing primary care. We also know something else – that those who continue to work as general practitioners intend to reduce their weekly working hours by an average of 2.5 hours by 2030.
The data comes from a representative survey conducted by sociologists at the Infas Institute on behalf of the „Bertelsmann“ Foundation and the University of Marburg. Around 3,700 German doctors practicing as GPs participated in the survey.
What is the situation in German healthcare now?
There are currently over 5,000 vacancies for general practitioners in Germany. In 2024, there were a total of 55,500 such broad-profile medical specialists in the country. According to experts at the „Bertelsmann“ Foundation, there are various alternative solutions to overcome the crisis. "An important factor is, for example, how much time a GP has to see each individual patient," says Uwe Schwenk, director of the Bertelsmann Foundation's health department.
The foundation sees itself as a "reform workshop" and offers solutions for the future. According to experts, one way to reduce the workload in doctors' offices is to digitize certain processes - for example, the exchange of test and diagnosis data between different specialists. It is also possible that some of the doctors' activities can be transferred to specially trained support staff or nurses.
Less bureaucracy, more flexible working hours
The majority of doctors surveyed said that under certain circumstances they would still be willing to give up their intention to close their offices and remain in the medical profession. As a prerequisite for this, most of them point to the reduction of bureaucracy, the possibility of a shorter work week and more flexible working hours.
Author: Marina Jung