Meal.
Essen is hosting the German Doctors’ Day this year. Health policy impulses regularly emanate from the event.
The German Doctors’ Day takes place in Essen in May, 500 to 800 participants will meet at the fair. “As a city, we can be proud that the largest event of the German medical profession is taking place here,” says Dr. Matthias Benn, Chairman of the Essen Medical Association.
Doctors’ Day was last held in Essen in 1966
The Doctors’ Day has already been a guest here twice, in 1929 and then in 1966: At that time, the municipal hospital was just developing into a university clinic. Medicine is now a major branch of the economy in Essen: the city has developed into an important health location in the region. Now that it was NRW’s turn to host the Doctors’ Day, Essen was chosen again.
The application was underpinned by the Essen medical profession with a video clip in which doctors from ophthalmology to visceral surgery talk about their work and their motivation: the medical student, the young family doctor or the retired pediatrician. “We deliberately decided not to only allow officials to speak,” emphasizes Benn. The physician and cabaret artist Ludger Stratmann, who has died in the meantime, was won over as a prominent advocate.
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In the clip, the doctors not only talk about their field, their patients and their passion for the medical profession, but also promote the city. They want to build on that in May, says Benn: “We want to convey a positive image of the Ruhr area to the world.” The framework conditions for this are ideal, after all, the Doctors’ Day will open in the Philharmonie, the working sessions will take place in the exhibition center: “So practical in the Gruga Park.”
Doctors also see themselves as ambassadors for their city
An opulent leisure program is not planned by the German Medical Association as organizer, adds Benn’s deputy Dr. Patricia Aden: “The meetings run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., that’s a lot of work.” But it makes sense to test the gastronomic offer on nearby Rüttenscheider Straße afterwards; Culture lovers might be drawn to the opera or the theatre. “We will have a stand at the fair and make recommendations,” says Patricia Aden. You see yourself as an ambassador for Essen.
A brochure with tips such as Baldeneysee, Zollverein, Folkwang Museum or Schurenbachhalde has already been printed. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, Lord Mayor Thomas Kufen and President of the North Rhine Medical Association (ÄkNo), Rudolf Henke, set the mood for the 127th Doctors’ Day in welcoming words. Again and again, health policy impulses emanate from Doctors’ Days. But for 2023, the program will probably only be published in two weeks, according to ÄkNo: “Not all speakers have been decided yet.”
Pandemic has put public health in the spotlight
One can probably assume that Corona will still play a role, say Benn and Aden. Even if you consider the pandemic to be over, it is an event that has challenged and changed the entire healthcare system. “We all learned a lot from the pandemic,” says Benn.
Which questions the Doctors’ Day asks also depends on the applications of the participants. And they belong to different interest groups with different perspectives: there are resident physicians, hospital doctors – or the public health system, which has been put in the spotlight with the pandemic. “It will continue to play a central role in the future,” believes Patricia Aden. “This requires better staffing.”
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