Luring Doctors to Eastern Germany

The German Health Ministry on Monday said it was working on a package of incentives to lure doctors from western Germany to the country's poorer East to make up for a dire lack of medical practioners in the region. German Deputy Health Minister Theo Schröder said it was important to attract medical students from western Germany to the east and to "organize a transfer from West to East." Schröder pointed to a study commissioned by the Health Ministry, which found that the number of young doctors opting for the hard working life in clinics and hospitals in eastern Germany was continually falling with most increasingly preferring more lucrative careers in business and medical administration. The doctors' organization Marburger Bund has urged the government to take urgent steps to improve the often stressful working conditions in hospitals.