Brandenburg’s Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher sees no quick solution to the shortage of doctors in the state. “It’s a tedious business, and you have to turn a lot of screws,” said the Green politician on Tuesday morning on RBB Inforadio. “I often get the message, ‘Send us an ophthalmologist here and there, you’re Minister of Health.’ Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.” The state government has little influence on where doctors want to work.
“It’s about making the country more attractive overall, about offering places to study, and scholarships are also a way,” said Nonnemacher. More medical care centers (MVZ) are also useful. “We want to make this easier under federal law,” said the Minister of Health. “But we have a difficult situation simply due to the demographic development in both the medical and nursing fields.”
The point is that we make the country more attractive overall, that we offer places to study, and scholarships are also a way.
Ursula NonnemacherBrandenburg’s Minister of Health
Nonnemacher does not share the criticism that Brandenburg is saving in the wrong place if it reduces the country doctor’s grants. From this year there will only be 18 of them nationwide. That’s 75,000 euros for a student to stay in Brandenburg for five years after completing his specialist training,” said Nonnemacher. “That’s a lot of money. And we simply can no longer represent that in the household.”
In addition, the situation in Brandenburg has also changed. “The Brandenburg Medical School has been dismissing the first medical students since 2021, so we are also training doctors at a private university,” said the Minister of Health. Two-thirds of the graduates stayed in the country. “And we are putting a lot of energy into starting a state university in Cottbus.” It should also be possible to study medicine there. (dpa)
