Medical shortage crisis: Limited medical school spots unable to meet growing demand for physicians
Uneven Distribution of Medical Study Places in Germany Pose Challenges to Healthcare System
Medical education in Germany is unevenly distributed among the federal states, with a concentration in states hosting major university hospitals and medical faculties. This disparity has significant implications for the availability of doctors and healthcare services regionally.
According to the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), states like Bavaria (Munich), Berlin, Baden-Württemberg (Tübingen, Stuttgart), North Rhine-Westphalia (Cologne, Bonn, Aachen), and Hamburg have multiple and large medical schools connected to university hospitals. These institutions serve as key centers for medical education, research, and highly specialized care, attracting medical students and doctors alike.
States with large medical faculties and university hospitals tend to have better access to specialized healthcare and a higher doctor density. University hospitals are centers of innovation and clinical research, providing advanced treatments through multidisciplinary teams and experimental therapies, which in turn attract and retain medical professionals.
On the other hand, regions lacking major medical schools may face physician shortages and reduced access to cutting-edge care, as fewer locally trained doctors may choose to practice there. The clustering of educational and research institutions influences where medical talent accumulates and where sophisticated healthcare services are most developed.
Germany’s robust healthcare infrastructure and high healthcare spending support a generally strong healthcare system, but regional disparities persist due to the educational pipeline. Medical education quality and availability are crucial for sustaining the overall healthcare workforce and medical innovation.
The "stickiness effect" of medical study places, where graduates settle near the study location, is a hoped-for outcome. Around 65 percent of the approximately 113,000 medical students are female, with the proportion of women among first-year students increasing. Today, 30 percent more people are studying medicine than in 1995, but there is still a lack of doctors.
Brandenburg and Bremen currently have no state-funded study offer for future doctors. The Social Association SoVD warns that the shortage of medical study places threatens local healthcare provision in many regions. The creation of new medical faculties or private universities has not been sufficient to address the shortage of skilled workers.
Private institutions offering medical studies provide around 1,500 places for new students each year. The newly founded Medical University of Lausitz is set to start operations in the winter semester 2026/27 in Brandenburg. Despite these efforts, regions with medical faculties tend to have a relatively high doctor density. Approximately 9,100 men and women from Germany are studying medicine abroad.
In the study year 2024, North Rhine-Westphalia had the most first-year students starting human medicine, with 2,334. For the winter semester 2024/25, around 10,000 first-year students secured a medical study place at a university, while around 20,000 applicants were unsuccessful. The annual running costs per person in the field of human medicine/health sciences are around 25,000 euros, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
The high costs of medical faculties are likely the main reason for the different engagement of the federal states, according to CHE data. The number of medical study places has only increased slightly in the past nearly ten years, from around 9,000 to 10,000. This slow growth in medical study places may exacerbate the existing regional disparities in healthcare provision.
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