German Health System Overview
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Germany: Medical Personnel
Density of medical doctors (per 10,000 population) (2012-2020): 44.3
Density of nursing and midwifery personnel (per 10,000 population) (2012-2020): 141.9
Density of dentists (per 10,000 population) (2012-2020): 8.5
Density of pharmacists (per 10,000 population) (2012-2020): 6.6
Source: World health statistics 2022: monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development
goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Remuneration of Doctors, Ratio to Average Wage (2019)
General Practitioners: 4.4
Specialists: 3.4 (Salaried); 5.3 (Self-Employed)
Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, Ratio to Average Wage (2019): 1.1
Remuneration of Hospital Nurses, USD PPP (2019): $58,900
Source: OECD (2021), Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae3016b9-en.
“Germany also has high numbers of physicians and nurses, with per population ratios and growth rates well above the EU average (Figure 9). Growth in physician numbers has been particularly strong for hospital physicians. Since 2004, when the diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based hospital payment system was introduced, the number of doctors (by head count) in hospitals increased by 42% (from 138,000 to 196,000 in 2017), while the number of doctors in ambulatory care increased by 25%. Nevertheless, given the high number of hospital beds, the physician to bed ratio is comparatively low, and the nurse to bed ratio is one of the lowest in the EU.”
Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Germany: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.
“As a result of fee negotiations within expenditure targets, physicians in all three countries earn lower incomes than their US counterparts. For example, in 2016 generalist physicians in the US earned an average of $218,173. In comparison, generalists in France and Germany earned $111,769 and $154,126, respectively. Similarly, specialist physicians in the US earned an average of $316,000 in 2016, compared with $153,180 in France and $181,253 in Germany.3 Japanese physicians earned, on average, $124,558 in 2016; however, this is an average of generalist and specialist incomes.”
Source: Michael K. Gusmano, Miriam Laugesen, Victor G. Rodwin, and Lawrence D. Brown. Getting The Price Right: How Some Countries Control Spending In A Fee-For-Service System. Health Affairs 2020 39:11, 1867-1874.
“Mechanisms for planning human resources hardly exist in Germany and are only available for SHI [Statutory Health Insurance] physicians and psychotherapists in ambulatory care, and for some study programmes. Places for academic training at universities in medicine, pharmacy and dentistry are limited by individual universities. The ratio between the number of applicants and the available places is between 2:1 and 5:1 (see Section 4.2.4 Training of health workers). The number of training schools and the number of training places for allied health professions are not restricted.
“Under Germany’s federal structure, the states are responsible for regulating and financing education, as well as for registering and supervising health professions. The state ministries of health are responsible for the registration of health care professionals and grant licences to practise (approbation) for physicians, psychotherapists, pharmacists and dentists, and authorize the use of professional titles for the other allied health care professions. In general, the respective chambers of physicians, psychotherapists, dentists, pharmacists and nurses (the latter only available in three states) are responsible for the organization, implementation and supervision of further training activities. Re-accreditation (relicensing) is not required in any of the health professions.”
Source: Blümel M, Spranger A, Achstetter K, Maresso A, Busse R. Germany: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(6): pp.i–273.
Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.
Page last updated Jan. 25, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.
