Medical Doctor’s Shortage: Consultation Hour with the Doctor’s Assistant

Close cooperation wiht the doctor

The doctor’s assistant Jérome Wäger with family doctor Dr. Benjamin Welte.He is responsible and signs the regulations and recipes. Still,a doctor’s assistant means great relief for him,he says. And it is a model for the future.

As the shortage of doctors is obvious.Around Neuendettelsau alone, 15 medical seats have not been filled in the past three years. This has to be rethought here, says family doctor Welte: “We have to get away from the doctor’s system in which only one doctor can supply the patients. In other countries such as the Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada, it already works very well that PAS take on basic care.”

Community fills the gap

The municipality of Neuendettelsau is a pioneer in Middle Franconia.Since the beginning of the year, she has been running her own municipal medical care centre (MVZ) with two employees, Jérome Wäger and other practice staff. The municipality has invested around 200,000 euros for this and takes care of equipment, administration, accounting, staff and much more.

As a rural community, people fight against the reduction of medical care on site, says Stefan Grün, board member of the MVZS. Because of demographic change, there will be increasingly fewer medical practices and more older people on the other hand, who need medical care more often on average than younger ones.

So far no financing in Bavaria

The municipality of neuendettelsau makes advance payments with the employment of a doctor’s assistant and pays its salary. So far, the costs have not been covered by the health insurance companies in Bavaria for formal reasons. In other federal states, such as Baden-Württemberg, there is a surcharge of 10 euros per patient per quarter if a Physician Assistant (PA) works in a practice. “it would be desirable if there was a surcharge in Bavaria or a billing number as in other federal states,” says MVZ board member Stefan Grün. In his view, a pilot project would also make sense.

Presentation in the Bavarian state parliament

In October, the German Society for Physician Assistants EV (DGPA) will work in the Bavarian state parliament to better establish PAS in Bavaria. So far, this has failed, among other things, due to the professional profile Physician Assistance, which is not regulated by federal law.

There is therefore no state -regulated training and examination. A spokesman for the bavarian Ministry of Health says that Physician Assistants, as well as nursing staff or medical assistants, “can be a component in order to counter a possible structural shortage of doctors”, although it should be noted that a PA should not perform medical activities independently.

Perspective for prospective PAS

Thus, the DGPA is committed to a nationwide curriculum and nationwide final exams. “There is already a corresponding Federal Medical Association of April 2025,” says the deputy DGPA chairman Patrick Klein.

That would also be a perspective for the approximately 5,000 prospective medical assistants and assistants who are currently studying this subject such as Sophia Bß. She comes to the thir