One in four doctors practicing in Switzerland is aged 60 or over, and almost four in ten are from abroad. The FMH is sounding the alarm in the face of this aging and this “dependency on foreign countries”.
“Measures to counter the shortage of doctors are becoming urgent”, headlines the Federation of Swiss Doctors (FMH) in its latest bulletin published on Wednesday. Medical statistics for 2021 show the continuation of the trend towards an aging medical profession and an increase in doctors holding a foreign diploma (38.4% of the total, +1 point over one year).
Of the 39,222 practitioners (+1.9% over one year) practicing in Switzerland last year, one in two was aged 50 or over and one in four was 60 or over. The feminization of the profession continued. Today, the share of women in the profession has reached 44.9% (their number has increased by nearly 700).
Three to four years older
In 2005, the average age of outpatient medical personnel was 52 years old. He is now 55 years old. In the hospital sector, it went from 40 to 44 years.
Doctors of foreign origin mainly come from Germany (52% of them). Following, far behind, are Italy (9.2%), France (7.2%) and Austria (6%).
THE WFH predicts that foreign dependence will continue to increase. In 2021, 1118 doctors have obtained their federal diploma. In the same year, the Medical Professions Commission (MEBEKO) recognized 2,736 foreign medical degrees. With regard to specialist titles, 1666 doctors obtained a federal title, and 1316 foreign diploma titles were admitted.
General internal medicine is the most widespread discipline (21.5%), followed by psychiatry and psychotherapy (10%), pediatrics (5.3%) and gynecology and obstetrics (5.1%).
men operate
Women are clearly in the majority in pediatrics (66.8%), psychiatry and psychotherapy for children and adolescents (66.4%) and in gynecology and obstetrics (65.8%).
Men are very clearly in the majority in the surgical disciplines (oral and maxillofacial surgery with 92.3%, thoracic surgery/90.9%, orthopedic surgery/86.6%).
In the hospital sector, the share of women decreases as one goes up the hierarchy. It is preponderant among assistant physicians (59.5%), significant among clinical heads (49.8%) but only reaches 29.5% among assistant physicians and 15.3% among chief physicians.
This is in particular due to the fact, explains the FMH, that the positions of senior doctors and chief doctors are more often occupied by people belonging to the upper age groups, in which women are under-represented.
Political issues
The WFH wonders: will Switzerland still have enough doctors in the future to treat patients appropriately? This will depend on future political decisions, warns the organization.
The issues are as follows: the possible adoption by the Federal Council of the new medical tariff (Tardoc, instead of TarMed) which would strengthen primary care medicine, the mastery of administrative tasks for doctors to have enough time for their patients , a possible expenditure ceiling which would lead to the deferral of certain salaries.
“The quality and performance of the Swiss healthcare system also depend on the conditions under which doctors can practice their profession in Switzerland,” concludes the FMH.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats