published3. August 2022, 19:43
SwitzerlandClosed practices and no staff – the new rule exacerbates the shortage of doctors
Doctors in Switzerland are worried regarding the new federal rule. They fear that the supply will no longer be guaranteed in the future.
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- Monira Djurdjevic
- Daniel Krahenbuehl
“The requirements have been tightened so drastically that it is impossible to find suitable staff,” criticizes Christoph Zeller, managing director of the practice at the train station in Bäch SZ.
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According to Zeller, patients have to be turned away, opening hours shortened and practices closed: “This is how we drive our health system to the wall.”
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As of this year, only doctors who have worked for at least three years in the field applied for at a recognized Swiss training center may be employed.
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Doctors in Switzerland speak of an acute shortage of doctors, which is exacerbated by this regulation.
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The National Council’s Commission for Social Security and Health has now launched a parliamentary initiative that is intended to allow exceptions to this rule in the event of undersupply.
The federal government has made it more difficult for foreign general practitioners to be licensed. “The requirements have been tightened so drastically that it is impossible to find suitable personnel. Patients have to be turned away, opening hours shortened and practices closed. This is how we drive our health system to the wall,” criticizes Christoph Zeller, managing director of the practice at the train station in Bäch SZ.
Only recently did he want to hire a specialist from the canton of Aargau, who had had her own practice there for 15 years. “Because she did not meet the new admission requirements, she did not receive a permit from the health department in Schwyz,” says Zeller. In such cases, the new rule is equivalent to a professional ban. An enormous amount of specialist knowledge remains completely unused. The consequence of the staff shortage: “We send around twenty people directly to the hospital every day because we don’t have time to treat them.”
Since January 1, 2022, only doctors who have worked for at least three years in the field applied for at a recognized Swiss training center may be employed. The Medical Society of the Canton of Zurich AGZ generally supports the applicable admission requirements. But President Josef Widler also says: “This should not result in undersupply or intensify it.” There is already such a thing with the primary care providers. So many family and pediatric practices are at the limit and cannot accept new patients.
The Medical Society of the Canton of Bern is also very familiar with the situation: “In the Bern Workforce Study 2020-2025, only 40 percent of the doctors who responded stated that they were still accepting new patients without restrictions,” says Deputy Media Spokesman Markus Gubler. In addition, primary care practices would have to close once more and once more because no medical replacement might be found. The shortage of skilled workers is most pronounced in peripheral regions.
“Demand has not found a hearing in Parliament”
The conference of cantonal health directors GDK supported the approval proposal in principle, but in its “opinions repeatedly and expressly pointed out that exceptions must be possible in the event of undersupply”, as spokesman Tobias Bär says. Unfortunately, this demand was not heard in Parliament. In the meantime, the problematic effects of a missing exemption have become apparent regionally or in individual areas: “They pose problems for the cantons and can jeopardize the guarantee of appropriate care for the population.”
Even if the principle of targeted licensing restrictions remains undisputed, the problem of medical undersupply, especially in the area of basic outpatient care, must be tackled quickly. “It affects all parts of the country. It cannot have been in the interests of the legislator to accept a shortage with the new approval control. The law should be amended so that exceptions are possible in the event of a proven massive undersupply,” says Bär.
According to the Federal Office of Public Health FOPH, ensuring care is basically a matter for the cantons or the service providers, insofar as the cantons have delegated this. In the meantime, however, the National Council’s Commission for Social Security and Health has launched a parliamentary initiative that is intended to allow exceptions to this rule in the event of undersupply. Doctors are to be exempted from the requirement to have worked at a recognized Swiss training center for three years. The AGZ, among others, has written to all Zurich national and state councils to support the parliamentary initiative.
