Dental practices in Germany: Alarming shortage of skilled workers threatens patient care

alarm mood in Germany's dental practices! The shortage of skilled workers is massive to the practices, and the situation continues to come to a head. A current survey, which was carried out by the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance (ZI) on behalf of the National Association of Statutory Dentists (KZBV), reveals terrifying numbers that are of crucial importance for the future of dental care in the country.

Less than a third of the dental practices in Germany can rate your personnel situation as good or very good - a frightening result! In contrast, 40 percent of the practices rate their personnel situation as bad or even very bad. And that has fatal consequences: Around 43 percent of the practices surveyed must already restrict their range of treatment. That means less care for the patients! A devastating sign for the dental landscape!

The voice of the dentists - a call for action!

Martin Hendges, CEO of KZBV, raises the alarm: "Our employees are the heart of our practices. Your work is the key to the functionality of dental care!" The survey clearly shows that almost all practices will have to expect significant losses in the future, and was also pointed out to the alarming political framework that could further tighten this situation. Hendges asked politicians to finally create robust and reliable framework conditions.

The search for the urgently needed specialist staff is extremely difficult. Above all, dental assistants (ZFA), dental assistant (ZMF) and dental administrative assistance (ZMV) are very popular! But the statistics speak a clear language: on average, only 3.5 applications come to each open position - and the majority of them do not correspond to the requirement profile. This is a massive problem!

bureaucracy as a shoe

But the challenges do not stop here. The massive bureaucracy in the dental practices is extremely stressful. The growing administrative effort robs valuable time that should actually be used for patient care. "It must be prevented that our specialists lose the joy of work due to the high loads!" so Hendges. The appeal to Health Minister Lauterbach is clear: it has to be traded now!

Back to the numbers: Founded by the bottleneck analysis of the Federal Employment Agency, the shortage of skilled workers in dental practices was found in May 2023. The survey reached 1,900 dentists who put their pressing personnel worries on the table. A clear signal that quickly urgent measures are necessary!

Viewed in isolation, the survey significantly shows how much the shortage of skilled workers in Germany puts under pressure. Who will take care of the patients when nobody is there anymore? The time to act is now!