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Intensive care physician Christian Karagiannidis believes that the expected burden on Germany’s healthcare system due to the lack of skilled workers will be greater than that caused by the corona pandemic. “The pandemic was not pretty, but compared to what we will experience in the next ten years, it was a much smaller problem,” said Karagiannidis of Berlin’s “tageszeitung”. He therefore pushed for mass immigration.

“We will lose about 500,000 employees retiring in all occupations every year,” warned the president of the German Association for Internal Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine (DIVI). This left millions of jobs unfilled. “These workers are missing as nurses, they are missing as contributors – that is still completely underestimated,” Karagiannidis said. If nothing happens now, “the health system will crash”.

As a way out, the doctor, who is also head of a special center at the lung clinic in Cologne-Multiheim, campaigned for targeted recruitment of young people abroad. Otherwise the gaps in the staff could not be closed. “The only thing that would increase the number of employees would be large-scale structured migration.” For example, in countries with high birth rates and high youth unemployment, young people could be taken to Germany immediately after school.

“After the three-year training, they have to decide for themselves whether they want to stay here or return to their home country,” Karagiannidis campaigned for a right of residence. “But that should be done soon,” he urged to hurry. At the same time, however, he expressed skepticism about the implementation: “Unfortunately, I don’t see that at all in the current political climate.” (sda/afp)