Rural Germany is on the brink on a crisis: By 2020, around 50,000 registered doctors are expected to retire, but one authority says there is still time to do something about it.
A shrinking population and the flight of young educated people to towns are killing off Germany’s small villages – but rather than fight to keep them alive, politicians should try to make the decline as painless as possible, according to a new demographic survey.
The German government unveiled measures on Wednesday to try to stop a drain of doctors from country to city amid concerns that an ageing population will require ever more health care.
Health Minister Philipp Rösler came under heavy criticism on Wednesday for his suggestion to create a university quota to encourage medical students to become country doctors in rural areas struggling to treat their populations.