Lack of experienced surgeons in vascular surgery-A joint task

Introduction: An increasing shortage of specialists and training assistants is also being lamented in vascular surgery. Despite a continuous increase in the number of physicians and medical students in Germany in recent years, the need for specialists and training assistants in vascular surgery is enormous in a sustained manner. Methods: Professional policy analysis from a medical vascular surgery perspective including currently available statistics, especially from the Federal Statistical Office, the Federal Medical Association, the Saxony-Anhalt (SA) State Medical Association and selective references from current medical scientific literature on epidemiological topics. Results: In 2022, according to the basic data of the Federal Statistical Office 200 vascular surgery departments provided a total of 5706 beds for care. In 2021, 1574 physicians with the regional and specialist title in vascular surgery were registered by the medical associations. In the following years, there was an increase of 404 vascular surgeons. The recognition of the specialist title for vascular surgery fell from 166 in 2018 to 143 in 2021. There are 23 vascular surgery care units in Saxony-Anhalt (SA). At the SA Medical Association, there were 52 registered doctors with the specialist title in vascular surgery in the inpatient sector in 2021. In comparison, at the North Rhine Medical Association in 2021 there were 362 registered doctors with regional and specialist titles in vascular surgery overall and 292 in the inpatient sector. The age-standardized hospital incidence of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) rose from approximately 190 to over 250 per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany between 2005 and 2016 and plateaued at this level. This corresponded to a relative increase of 33%. During the same observational period, the number of procedures performed doubled, mainly due to a strong increase in the number of endovascular interventions (approximately 140% increase) and interventions for arterial embolism/thrombosis (approximately + 80%). A research report commissioned by the German Hospital Society (DKG) in 2010 predicted a replacement requirement for physicians of approximately 108,000 by 2019 and an additional requirement of almost 31,000 physicians. While 14.6-27.2% of those employed in 2008 will have retired by 2020, between 45.6% and 68.5% will retire by 2030. Summary: Despite the statistically verifiable improvement in the staffing situation of specialists in vascular surgery in the inpatient and outpatient sectors in Germany, it can be assumed that there is a problem in recruiting young specialists. In order to target the recruitment of junior staff, it is first necessary to comprehensively record basic data on the staff situation and staff development in the area of residents in vascular surgery. In addition, further work should be done on implementing the recommendations for action already put forward years ago by scientific reports at state and federal levels.