The Medical Practice Crunch in Schleswig-Holstein: A Growing Staffing Predicament
Numerous medical clinics in Schleswig-Holstein are facing staffing deficits. - Numerous healthcare facilities across Schleswig-Holstein face staffing shortages.
Struggling to maintain daily operations, the medical community in Schleswig-Holstein grapples with a pressing shortage of Medical Assistants (MFAs). This issue, according to medical representatives, is causing significant problems.
At the halfway point of last year, there were 14,929 MFAs employed in Schleswig-Holstein's practices, as per the Association of Medical Professions. Yet, the Association President, Hannelore König, forewarns, "The demographic trend is also a reflection in this profession. The number of trainees has been dwindling since 2021."
Many MFAs have decided to leave the field as the salary, given the responsibility for health, daily stress, and comparative professions, is deemed insufficient by König. She adds, "Without MFA, a practice is almost nothing."
Jens Lassen, head of the House Doctors' Association Schleswig-Holstein, echoes König's sentiments. The role of an MFA is central to practices, and a stark lack of them can render a practice largely ineffective. Lassen, however, lacks specific numbers regarding the current vacancies.
The shortage directly impacts a practice's performance, increasing wait times, restricting service options, and escalating workloads for doctors, Lassen explains.
The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Schleswig-Holstein in Bad Segeberg echoes these concerns, with spokesman Delf Kröger stating, "This is a substantial problem that is greatly affecting doctors."
The staff shortage impacts all specialties and is exacerbated by competing institutions poaching skilled labor for better compensation. "We demand adequate funding for medical practices to pay good, skilled workers as employers," Kröger urges.
The 2023 regional labor market shortage analysis by the Federal Employment Agency for the Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg district already displayed four out of six criteria indicative of a shortage, with the ratio of job seekers to vacancies continuing to decline.
Association President Hannelore König believes this predicament will intensify in the future due to the retirement of the baby boomer generation and the increasing demand for MFAs to alleviate doctors. As long as the competition between medical practices and clinics for MFAs remains unregulated, this shortfall in medical practices is likely to persist, particularly in urban areas and the vicinity of clinics.
Despite recent salary increases for MFAs, the pay gap between them and comparable professions remains substantial. MFAs, like nursing professionals, undergo a three-year training period and shoulder a similar level of patient responsibility, according to König.
"The prerequisite for addressing this issue - as in nursing - is that the salary increases are co-funded and thus fully accounted for in the financing of the services provided by practicing physicians," König concludes.
- Medical Practice
- Schleswig-Holstein
- Healthcare Workforce Shortage
- Demographic Changes
- Skilled Labor Demand
- Work-Life Balance
- Burnout
- Foreign Healthcare Workers
Additional Insights:
- Broader Context: The medical workforce shortage in Schleswig-Holstein is part of a larger issue affecting Germany, with around 47,400 positions remaining unfilled across the country [1].
- Implications of Shortage: The shortage can cause increased workloads, reduced operational hours, delayed appointments, compromised patient care, and greater burnout among remaining staff [2].
- Addressing the Shortage: A solution to this problem could involve increased training programs, incentives for retaining healthcare professionals, and policy changes to facilitate foreign medical graduate integration [2].
- To combat the escalating medical staff shortage in Schleswig-Holstein, which is exacerbated by demographic changes and the competition for skilled labor, community policy could include incentives for vocational training in medical-related fields, such as vocational training programs for Medical Assistants (MFAs), to increase the number of trainees.
- In the context of the health-and-wellness sector, the staff shortage in Schleswig-Holstein not only affects the performance of medical practices but also impacts the research and development of scientific advancements in health care. Therefore, it is crucial for community policy to consider the investment in vocational training programs as a means to ensure a well-equipped and prepared medical workforce for the future, benefiting both patients and the advancement of science.
