German Hospitals Want Greek Doctors

Hospitals in the most populous state of Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, have 12,000 vacant doctor positions and their doors wide open to Greek medical students who want to complete their practice there or Greek doctors who simply want to work outside Greece.Now that the economic crisis is threatening young people in Greece more than ever with massive unemployment and low salaries, hundreds of scientists have expressed the will to move in order to find a job and make ends meet.Greek doctors are highly evaluated in foreign countries, especially in Germany, where their tertiary education is considered to be of very high standards. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, interest in recruiting Greek doctors has become so extensive that the Medical Association of Thessaloniki and other respective Greek authorities organized a two-day symposium in Greece’s second biggest city.

The event aimed at informing Greek doctors about working and living in Germany as well as about the potential and the requirements one must meet to apply for a job or trainee position in German hospitals.

According to the German Deputy Health Minister Marlis Bredehorst, some 2,000 Greek doctors are currently employed in Germany, which makes them the second biggest foreign doctors group in the country.

As noted by the president of the Medical Association of Thessaloniki Athanasios Exadaktylos, in Thessaloniki alone, unemployed doctors are estimated to exceed 1,000  while waiting for new doctors to get their medical specialization may exceed five years.