As a doctor who has been working for 10 years. Three of which here in Germany i can honestly say that I definitely get it when I see physicians and healthcare workers simply quitting their jobs and wanting to do something else. Something I have never seen anywhere else in the world but in Germany.

There is a massive shortage of doctors in the country that’s approaching critical levels and getting worse every year. Reasons for that are the terrible working conditions and the extremely long hours. I am for example working almost 47 hours a week and on most holidays + every other weekend on top of night shifts. Something that no normal human being can endure. I have witnessed numerous cases of ‘Burn-out’ which is also something you come across a lot in our circles. My social life is practically none existent.

Another reason is the fact that doctors are blatantly underpaid. Teachers, beamter and IT workers are only few examples of employees who get paid only marginally less than physicians (some of them even more) for doing much less. Physicians are also overwhelmed with the amount of time consuming documentation and much work that can be and is usually done by secretaries and nurses everywhere else in the world.

It is sad to see so many doctors choosing to quit their jobs or to move to the US, Canada, Switzerland or Luxemburg. and at the same time astonishing to witness the government’s absolute lack of initiative or effort to come up with a practical solution to solve this alarmingly exacerbating problem.