According to a study, problems with missing general practitioners threaten to worsen in many regions.
In 2035, almost 11,000 practices across Germany could be unoccupied, announced the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart - after the most recent 3570 unoccupied doctor's offices in 2019/2020.
Especially in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony, it could be difficult to find a family doctor nearby.
In some districts, the number of general practitioners there will probably decrease by around 50 percent by 2035.
As the Berlin IGES Institute analyzed on behalf of the foundation, based on around 52,000 general practitioners, almost 30,000 general practitioners are likely to retire between 2019 and 2035 for reasons of age. According to the scenario, only around 25,000 practices can be reoccupied - while the number of general practitioner offices to be filled could rise to 58,000 at the same time, given the aging population. This resulted in almost 10,900 unoccupied seats. The density of care would therefore decrease from 63 to 57 general practitioners per 100,000 inhabitants.
The reasons for the problems are that few young doctors decide to practice as a family doctor. Young doctors increasingly preferred salaried and part-time models instead of individual practices. The authors of the study name, among other things, local health centers with multi-professional teams as a proposed solution.