Contracting many years in advance to work somewhere in the country for ten years? With a fine of 250,000 euros if you change your mind? That may sound daunting, but ambitious young people are pounding the doors of the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL). They want to get a place at a medical school in Bavaria via the country doctor quota. Almost four times as many applicants applied for 113 places in the spring. In these days, the Foundation for University Admissions is again awarding the coveted medical study places. The quota students were the first to be informed.
In the coming winter semester, almost 2000 students will start at Bavaria’s six universities with medical training, 5.8 percent of them have contractually assured the LGL that they will then commit themselves as a country doctor. Somewhere in Bavaria, where they are needed. In addition to 113 potential country doctors, there are 18 who want to commit to the public health service and become a public health officer. You are allowed to study via the ÖGD quota, which was introduced in 2021, one year after the country doctor quota. Especially in the first Corona months of 2020, it became apparent that there was a lack of medical officers in Bavaria. Critics had complained that the ÖGD had been saved. The Ministry of Health wants to have planned the quota beforehand.
For Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU), the quotas are a success and the right step to alleviate the shortage of doctors in rural areas and in the health service. The quotas are “popular, and many young medical students want to settle down in Bavaria and work as a general practitioner, or public health officer.” They made an “important contribution to future-proof healthcare in Bavaria”.
327 potential country doctors are already studying, more than half are women
A total of 327 potential rural doctors and 33 public health officers are already studying, 55 percent of whom are women. On average, the doctors are in their mid-twenties and mostly come from Bavaria. You don’t have to have an A-levels, but you have to face a two-stage selection process. Criteria are an aptitude test, training in a health profession, how long you have worked in it and whether you do voluntary work. There is also a selection interview.
It will only become clear in eight to ten years whether the quota will make any difference. Medical students study at university for six years, followed by five years of residency training. The Bavarian General Practitioners’ Association is cautiously optimistic: “This is definitely a start,” says Beate Reinhardt, board member and representative for young medicine. But structural changes are more important to her than assumptions about the future: The experiences with the country doctor students are “very promising”, they have a lot of social skills and practical experience. The doctor therefore suggests that admission to medical studies should be based on the country doctor criteria – and no longer made dependent on the Abitur grade.