SVR presents report on the shortage of work force in the healthcare sectorPress Conference at the Federal Ministry of Health

25 April 2024, by Hannes Rathjen

At today's Federal Press Conference the German Expert Council on Health & Care (SVR) presented its latest expert report on “Work force in the healthcare sector. Sustainable use of a scarce resource” to the public and handed it over to Federal Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach.

In the report, the members of the Expert Council state that, in an international comparison and in relation to the population, the German healthcare system has a relatively large number of employees. Nevertheless, supply shortages are clearly evident, which points to structural deficits. The SVR therefore recommends a package of measures to ensure that the valuable resource of specialists can be used in a more targeted manner in the interests of patient welfare in future.

HCHE Director Prof. Dr. Jonas Schreyögg is Deputy Chairman of the SVR and emphasizes the need for structural reforms: “Germany cannot avoid structural reforms in the healthcare system. The healthcare landscape as it has developed over the last few decades ties up too many staff and does not deliver the quality we want in case of illness for what we invest. We cannot overcome the shortage of work force with individual measures, but only with a package of measures. Above all, this includes a reform of emergency care, in particular through the creation of integrated control centers and integrated emergency centers, as already outlined by the Council in its 2018 report, an effective hospital reform that brings together specialists and expertise in functional centers, as well as further development of remuneration to enable more outpatient services for operations, among other things.”

The full report “Skilled workers in the healthcare sector. Sustainable use of a scarce resource” (in german) can be found here.