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Health policy
Union accuses Lauterbach of failing to combat the shortage of doctors
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) at a press conference at the end of March.
© Kay Nietfeld / DPA
The Federal Health Minister warns that there will soon be a shortage of up to 50,000 doctors in Germany. The Union faction in the Bundestag sees Lauterbach as to blame for this. Criticism also comes from Thuringia.
The Union in the Bundestag has a Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) accused of working against the interests of the medical profession. “The minister is not making any progress in eliminating the shortage of doctors,” said the health policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Tino Sorge star. “Time and time again, full-bodied promises are made and not kept.” Given the urgency of the project, “the dithering around portends worse things to come.”
The criticism is directed against the draft of a new law that is primarily intended to strengthen outpatient health care. Among other things, it is planned to abolish the so-called budgets with which the expenses of family doctors are capped in the future.
The background is the increasing shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas. “We have not trained 50,000 doctors in the last ten years,” Lauterbach recently warned on ARD. “Therefore, we will be lacking family doctors across the board in the next few years.” A “very difficult supply situation” is likely to arise.
Sorge accused Lauterbach of doing nothing about this scenario. He said that the states had clearly called for the federal government to contribute financially to the necessary creation of 5,000 medical study places per year. “But after the finance minister and the health insurance companies refused funding, the minister’s next project is now in danger of crashing.”
In doing so, Lauterbach is once again acting against the medical profession to which he himself belongs, explained the CDU member of the Bundestag. “The sufferers are the patients, especially in the structurally weak regions.” Sorge called on the Health Minister to approach the states instead of announcing things alone that he would then withdraw due to a lack of funding and agreement.
Tino Sorge is the health policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
© Kay Nietfeld / DPA
Criticism of Lauterbach also came from the federal states because, under pressure from the FDP, the so-called health kiosks are no longer included in the draft law. In these facilities, nurses should provide simple medical services such as dressing changes or blood pressure measurements. Lauterbach had planned up to 1,000 kiosks in structurally weak areas and rural regions.