Hamburg, December 20, 2022 – The economic mood in outpatient care fell again in the fourth quarter of 2022 – albeit less sharply than in the previous quarters. “The free fall from the third quarter has slowed down significantly,” reports Prof. Dr. medical dr re. pole. Konrad Obermann, Head of Research at the Health Foundation.
Above all, expectations for the next six months have improved: Eight out of ten sub-groups are currently more optimistic than in the previous quarter. “However, this is no reason to celebrate, because the values are still at a very pessimistic level despite the increase,” says Prof. Dr. dr Obermann. Alternative practitioners are currently the only group with an overall positive medical climate.
Muted satisfaction among some subgroups
There are rays of hope among general practitioners, psychological psychotherapists and naturopaths: there are currently more respondents rating their economic situation as “good” than “bad”. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of doctors are not satisfied – for example, a fifth of general practitioners, and even a third of specialists. The situation is even worse for non-medical healthcare professionals: between around 25 and 45 percent of those surveyed rate their current economic situation as bad.
Stop and think
In view of the development of the medical climate in recent quarters, according to Prof. Dr. dr Konrad Obermann, a fundamental discussion about the German healthcare system is appropriate: “The ongoing difficult economic situation for most healthcare professionals is a combination of different factors. The classic, fragmented and technocratic approaches in health policy seem to be reaching their limits. Perhaps it is time to actually start thinking about fundamental changes, as many experts are already calling for.”
About the medical climate index
For more than 15 years, the Health Foundation has been collecting the medical climate index, which reflects the economic mood and confidence of resident doctors. Since 2022, it has also been depicting the medical climate of non-medical healthcare professionals. The medical climate is surveyed analogous to the ifo business climate of the commercial economy. 1,712 service providers took part in the current survey in the fourth quarter of 2022.
About the Health Foundation
Knowledge is the best medicine – spurred on by this idea, the Hamburg-based Health Foundation campaigns nationwide and independently for transparency and orientation in the healthcare system.
In addition to its statutory tasks, the Health Foundation continuously carries out studies, such as the study series “Doctors in the future market of health” since 2005. The foundation records the mood, opinions and experiences of the medical profession and provides research results on current issues.
The structural index of medical care, which the foundation takes great care to keep up to date, serves as the basis for numerous services. Numerous license partners also use the structure directory – including media companies, statutory and private health insurance companies, federal authorities and research institutions.
The study and the graphic shown above can be downloaded from our website in the “Studies” section.
You can read more about our foundation work in our activity report.