Alarming facts

Figures from a study by the German Medical Association show how critical the future of German surgery is.

In 2008, around 14 million operations were performed throughout Germany. This represents an annual increase of around 5%, which is largely due to the constantly increasing age of the population. In 2008, around 26% of German citizens were aged 60 and over. Only 5% of all medical graduates want to become surgeons. This means a shortage of surgeons of around 600 per year. In 2009, around 5,000 doctor positions in hospitals could not be filled. It is expected that there will be a shortage of around 17,000 doctors in German hospitals by 2017.

The traditionally high quality of nationwide surgical care is at risk.

The forecasts have come true and reveal a frightening balance of the threatening development for surgical care in German hospitals. According to an economic analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers ("112 - and nobody helps"), one in four surgical jobs will remain vacant in 2030 due to a lack of new recruits and retirements. According to this aforementioned study, a baseline scenario predicts that 33,000 positions will be vacant by 2020 and 76,000 by 2030. Proportion of unfilled specialist posts by speciality

Surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons 2020 : 4% / 2030 : 23%
General practitioners, general practitioners 2020 : 14% / 2030 : 23%
HNO 2020 : 14% / 2030 : 38%

The DCS would like to counter developments such as these with commitment and demands for surgical professions and fields of research as well as the promotion of young talent for the fascination of surgery.