In the fight against the pandemic, the spring weeks are relatively relaxed – but the strategy for autumn is pending. At the meeting of the medical profession, another pathogen also comes into focus.
The effects of the Corona crisis on children and an impending further shortage of skilled workers in the healthcare sector are central topics of the German Doctors’ Day, which begins this Tuesday in Bremen.
Doctors President Klaus Reinhardt told the German Press Agency that the corona pandemic made it clear how thin the workforce is already today – in the nursing professions as well as among doctors in practices, hospitals and health authorities. In addition, an “enormous wave of retirements” is imminent, especially among resident doctors.
“We need at least 15 percent more study places in human medicine to keep the supply stable,” said Reinhardt.
focus on young people
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is expected at the opening (10 a.m.) of the Doctors’ Day. With a view to the Corona strategy for the fall, the German Medical Association had already warned in advance that special attention should be paid to the interests of young people. The federal and state governments must ensure the safe operation of schools and daycare centers.
Another topic of the four-day consultations with 250 delegates should be the need for medical care in a “society of long life” – in other words, with a view to the fact that there are likely to be more older people with a tendency to more illnesses.
Reinhardt said that the framework conditions for medical work also had to be improved. The traffic light coalition must finally declare war on commercialization and unnecessary bureaucracy in the healthcare sector. “She has the medical profession at her side.”
lack of transparency
The German Foundation for Patient Protection complained about the lack of transparency in the debate about the shortage of skilled workers. The need for medical staff should not be measured by the number of employees, said board member Eugen Brysch. Rather, the required full-time positions are decisive. “But this is exactly where valid data is missing. So if you are calling for more employees, you have to provide precisely these facts.”
Before the Doctors’ Day, Reinhardt was critical of the traffic light coalition’s corona policy. “Within the coalition there are very different ideas about how to deal with Corona, which leads to a lurching course and confusion,” he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Tuesday). He said to Lauterbach that his communication behavior was “sometimes quite strange”. Reinhardt referred to the minister’s backtracking on an initially announced switch to voluntary isolation for people infected with the corona virus.
Unclear corona strategy
Reinhardt is cautious about the government plans to procure an additional corona vaccine for the fall – he also argues with the lack of clarity regarding possible new virus variants. “It only makes sense if these vaccines have already been adapted to the new virus variant, i.e. are more effective than the previous ones,” said the medical president of the “FAZ”. “But we still don’t know exactly what to expect.”
In addition, it must first be clear that further vaccinations bring a real advantage. “So far there have been conflicting study results from Great Britain and Israel for the four vaccinations.” According to Lauterbach, a strategy of the federal government provides 830 million euros to procure a preparation announced by the manufacturer Moderna, which works in different variants at the same time.
On the fringes of the Doctors’ Day, Lauterbach wants to comment on the procedure after the first cases of monkeypox appeared in Germany. Reinhardt and the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, also took part in the press conference in Bremen (12.15 p.m.).
