In some areas of Germany the number of general practitioners is steadily decreasing. According to what was reported in recent days by Italia Oggi, the average age is 52 years and there are no successors, also because the health care reform has reduced earnings and increased costs for studying. A similar trend, with the progressive thinning out of generalists in the area, is also taking place in Italy, albeit for different reasons. «The national contract provides, as an optimal ratio, 1 doctor for every 1,000 patients. The average is 1 in 1,050, but in the North there are high values, with the peak in Lombardy of 1 doctor for every 1,300» he says Sylvester Scotti, deputy national secretary Fimmg. «There is therefore a problem of programming and dynamic control of the training of new family doctors on the basis of territorial needs. Suffice it to say that, since the specific courses were established in 1994, there were 830 scholarships available and they remained so until this year, when 150 were added, evidently not considering the changed demographic dynamics throughout the period ». As for earnings, Scotti points out that a family doctor in Germany has 30-40% higher income than in Italy. «A demonstration of this is the fact that in Trentino-Alto Adige a policy has begun based on doubling the scholarship for students, with the commitment, however, to remain operating in the area for a certain number of years, under penalty of returning the bag itself". A clear incentive against the exodus across the border with better guarantees of earnings. A problem that occurs in all border areas, and not only in a free market environment. «On the other hand, the Enpam projections speak for themselves» continues Scotti. «Within a few years the 50% of active family doctors will not have a replacement. It is essential to create new organizational models to resist the demographic impact that will occur and it will be necessary to insert the new recruits already during the 3-year course». That is, without waiting - to start the profession - for the end of mainly theoretical or tutored lessons and the subsequent bureaucratic procedures.
February 19, 2013 – DoctorNews33
