The general practitioner exam was the most common specialist exam in Baden-Würtemberg in 2019, according to the current medical statistics 2019 of the State Medical Association.
234 doctors passed the specialist exam for general medicine, followed by internal medicine (223) and anesthesiology (188).
In 2018 there were even more qualifications for general medicine (238) followed by internal medicine (226) and anesthesiology (155). In 2017 internal medicine came first (217), and general medicine second (198).
„The numbers give us hope, as the current trend shows that the general practitioner profession is becoming more interesting to young colleagues.”, said Wolfgang Miller, president of the State Medical Association.
He also pointed to the joint efforts of the state government, universities and professional to make general medicine more attractive to young doctors.
Medium-to-long-term, the country general practitioner program and the increase in the number of medical study places also counteracted the shortage of general practitioners. This ensures that more doctors opt for general medicine training and thus for a primary care profession.
Regardless, the lack of general practitioners remains a problem still: many old general practitioners will retire in the years to come, but they will at least reduce their work hours due to age.
The new statistics also shows that the number of doctors in Baden-Württemberg is currently increasing. At the end of December 2019, there were 69.199 medical professionals, out of which 51.179 were employed.
Compared to the end of 2018, this is an increase of 2% for working doctors and 1.8% for the number of doctors in total.
