Posted on 06/24/2006 5:18:20 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Young German doctors leaving the country
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 23, 11:57 AM ET
Anesthesiologist Christian Favoccia had no trouble deciding to ditch his job at the university hospital in Duesseldorf for a new one at a clinic in Amsterdam.
By leaving home, the 36-year-old specialist will make almost three times as much money, work shorter hours and have better chances at promotion.
"At this point I honestly can't tell you if I will ever come back to Germany," Favoccia said. "I am skeptical that they'll be able to offer me the same kind of incentives any time soon."
Germany's well-trained but frustrated young doctors are leaving the country for higher pay in ever greater numbers, leaving some hospitals struggling to fill positions.
More than 12,500 German doctors are working abroad already, and 2,300 left the country in 2005 alone, according to the doctors' association, the Marburger Bund. The Netherlands, Britain, United States, Australia, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries are among the top destinations.
"There are more than 5,000 jobs available at hospitals due to the number of people who have left," Michael Helmkamp, a spokesman for the Marburger Bund, said Tuesday. "Clinics all over Germany are facing shortages and many hospitals cannot provide their former standard of health care anymore."
Favoccia, who got his medical degree from the University of Bochum before moving on to the University Hospital Duesseldorf 5 1/2 years ago, is already taking Dutch classes together with a colleague who is also planning to move to Amsterdam. He said he did not mind starting a new life in the Netherlands even though he would miss his friends at home.
"My father came to Germany as an immigrant from Italy in the 1960s and built up a new life here, I guess I can do the same in Holland," said Favoccia, who is single.
A spokeswoman for the federal Health Ministry said Thursday that only some regions of Germany are struggling with a shortage of doctors while cities like Berlin are in fact facing a surplus.
"These general assumptions by the Marburger Bund are not always true," said spokeswoman Ina Klaus. "And besides that the government is contributing millions of euros for clinics to improve the working conditions of doctors."
At the University Hospital in Duesseldorf, dozens of doctors have left for better jobs abroad, said Favoccia. The situation is particularly dramatic at the anesthesia department where 17 out of 80 doctors have quit their jobs within the last year.
Low salaries are one of the main reasons. Favoccia is making $2,900 a month after taxes in Duesseldorf, but at the University Hospital in Amsterdam he will earn $8,150 after deductions — and work fewer hours.
Young clinic doctors never made a lot of money in Germany but knew that later in their career their tough beginnings at the hospital would pay off, said Favoccia. That was before changes to the government health insurance program aimed at limiting health costs — and restricting what doctors can charge.
There are very few private clinics in Germany, so most young doctors start their careers at university hospitals, state-run or municipal clinics.
"Today, it is not worth it anymore to struggle for years because after all the changes in the German health system you will never become rich, not even as a senior doctor or if you own a private practice," he said.
But it is not just about the money. Many express frustration with working conditions and career prospects.
"The hospital is not providing me with good training and the autocratic behavior of the chief physicians in Germany is completely outrageous and outdated," said Nelson Amaral, 28, another anesthesiologist in Duesseldorf. He starts a new job at the Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, England, in August.
Amaral said that his reasons for leaving were not only about better educational opportunities in England and the higher salary — he is making $2,500 net now and will earn about $3,700 in Plymouth — but also because he is fed up with what he described as the strong hierarchies among clinic staff.
"If you're not one of the bosses' favorites, they can keep you down forever and make sure that's you're not being promoted at all — it's just so arbitrary," he said.
Discontent among doctors has been building up for some time. For the last three months, some 12,000 clinic doctors staged strikes against their work conditions, forcing state-run and university clinics to provide only emergency care. An agreement was reached last week, providing clinic doctors with a pay raise of up to 20 percent based on their seniority and position, three additional days for continuing education training and a reversal of cuts to their year-end bonus.
The health crisis is far from over though — as state-run and university clinics were getting back to regular work hours, doctors at more than 700 city-run hospitals across Germany were threatening to also strike for higher salaries Wednesday.
One doctor who has left says it may be a long time before she returns.
"I thought I'd only stay for a year but now I am so happy with my job that I am not even thinking of moving back anytime soon — at least not as long as the situation in Germany is so disastrous," said Nina Lennhof, 30, a psychiatrist who quit her job in Berlin three years ago for a position at St. Thomas' Hospital in London.
"And they really like German doctors here — we're used to working hard and not expecting much in return."
Socialist countries like Germany could easily fix this problem.Build a wall.
Nah, we just double the amphetamine doses for the remaining doctors :D
These are the kind of people we need coming to America. Not a bunch of border jumping day laborers.
But Britain is closer and an Era of Thatcherism has left them with a school system unable to produce the specialists they need :)
I've heard that doctors in Germany are known to moonlight as taxi-cab drivers for extra income.
And I heard that about 20 years ago!
Arthur Laffer might agree.
Thirty years ago I met a young doctor in Singapore. He was from New Zealand on his way to a new position in England. He had talked with some people in Singapore who worked on drilling rigs there and in the North Sea. He wanted my help in getting a job with an oil company or drilling contractor. He was willing to give up medicine because the jobs paid so much better. I don't remember what he was going to be paid as a doctor but it didn't seem to be very much.
Maybe they should build a wall around Shermany to keep ambitious young people in.
This could open a new thread. You would not believe what the U.S. medical training establishment does to keep foreign doctors from practicing here. . . !
I'd like to think that it's because of the universal health care--which set the salary low. However, many countries mentioned as 'top destinations' are the known as welfare states too.
I believe it. I also understand why, too.
I work in the Medical field, and there is enough difficulty maintaining quality coming out of our own institutions without taking for granted the qualifications of someone who graduated from a Medical School in Ghana or Chile.
That said, we have several physicians from Germany who are now US Citizens, but all too often they have nothing good to say about this country. What really pisses them off is if you ask them: "If Germany is so great, and this place sucks so much, why are you here instead of Germany?"
It kills them, because they have to admit there is SOMETHING good about the USA, and it trumps everything else, apparently: You can make a good living here.
LOL...two of our doctors were having a heated argument one day, and the German doctor said: "You're just an ignorant Redneck!", at which the other doctor promply spat out: "At least I'm not a Nazi!"
In typical Euroweenie fashion, the German doctor marched into the Department Chair's office and whined: "He called me a Nazi!" When she asked the other one, he said: "He called me a Redneck first!"
Afterwards, she looked at me and said "Do you see what I have to deal with here?"
I just rolled my eyes.
Bump
That's pretty funny.
Why do they do that? To keep their incomes high?
And what do they do?
No wonder they're leaving. How could you ever live in
a country where they speak German? Have you ever tried to
stand in front of someone who speaks German? You get sprayed
by someone who has beer breath everytime he hits one of the gutterals.
You would not believe the quack doctors here in New York: former Soviet Bloc and every Third World untrained butcher imaginable. These young Germans are exceptionally well trained and should be hired en masse!
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