German Medical Association
Klaus Reinhardt remains the President of the Doctors – but only just
Since 2019 President of the German Medical Association: Klaus Reinhardt. photo
© Henning Kaiser/dpa
Continuity at the top of the German Medical Association: Klaus Reinhardt will continue to speak for the 550,000 physicians in Germany in the years to come as Medical President. But the choice was close.
Klaus Reinhardt will be President of the German Medical Association for another four years. The 62-year-old was confirmed in office in Essen with a three-vote majority.
He narrowly prevailed against the chairwoman of the Marburg Association of Doctors, Susanne Johna. Reinhardt received 125 votes from the delegates at the German Doctors’ Day, Johna 122. The German Medical Association represents the interests of 550,000 doctors.
Reinhardt has been President of the German Medical Association since 2019 and became a sought-after interview partner during the corona pandemic. He works as a family doctor in Bielefeld, where he continues the practice founded by his parents. The 62-year-old is also chairman of the Hartmannbund medical association.
“Need a real paradigm shift in health policy”
In his application speech, Reinhardt demanded: “We need a real paradigm shift in health policy.” The problems in the health system are just as important for society as, for example, climate change. “That’s why I’m fighting for the issue of health to be discussed in the same forward-looking way as the issue of climate.” Politicians have so far failed to recognize this scope. “The solutions that are sometimes being discussed in politics are adventurous to the point of absurd.”
His opponent Johna has led the Marburger Bund, the largest German medical association, which also functions as a trade union, since 2019. In the collective bargaining for doctors at municipal clinics, the Marburger Bund recently called for work stoppages several times. The doctor, who was born in Duisburg, works as a senior physician for hospital hygiene in Rüdesheim near Wiesbaden. She would have been the first woman to head the German Medical Association.
The four-day doctors’ day runs until Friday.
Doctors Day 2023