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🇩🇪 Germany /Health & Science

Linnemann seeks simpler recognition of foreign medical qualifications

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Health Minister Carsten Linnemann plans a regulation that would simplify recognition of foreign medical qualifications and take effect in November.
  • Authorities would have to accept documents in English, and the procedures would move online under the proposal.
  • Germany’s health-care system could face a shortage of about 50,000 doctors by 2040, particularly in rural areas.

Germany plans to make it easier for foreign doctors, dentists, pharmacists and midwives to gain recognition for their qualifications. Health Minister Carsten Linnemann said the new regulation should take effect in November.

The proposal would require authorities to accept documents in English and shift the recognition procedures online. In exceptional cases, people who began medical or pharmacy training abroad could continue and complete it in Germany. The measure would make it easier for professionals from Ukraine to obtain a license, the report said.

Anyone who wants to attract skilled workers for the health-care system must not hold them back with bureaucracy.

· Carsten LinnemannThe German health minister’s argument for simplifying recognition procedures.

“Anyone who wants to attract skilled workers for the health-care system must not hold them back with bureaucracy,” Linnemann said. “That is why we are simplifying the recognition of foreign qualifications for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and midwives and creating uniform nationwide rules.”

That is why we are simplifying the recognition of foreign qualifications for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and midwives and creating uniform nationwide rules.

· Carsten LinnemannHis description of the proposed changes to qualification recognition.

He said the changes would benefit medical professionals, the health-care system and, above all, patients. The regulation supplements a law already adopted to speed recognition procedures for foreign professional qualifications in the health professions. The Bundesrat is scheduled to consider it on Oct. 16.

The Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance Physicians estimates that Germany could lack about 50,000 doctors by 2040, particularly in rural areas. More than one-third of Germans surveyed by DAK-Gesundheit said they experienced a shortage of doctors in their region. In Saxony-Anhalt, one in five doctors came from abroad in August 2026, while the figure was more than one in three in the Dessau area. Medical bodies said comprehensive rural coverage could no longer be guaranteed without foreign colleagues.

The changes will benefit the skilled workers, our health-care system and, above all, the patients.

· Carsten LinnemannHis assessment of the proposed regulation.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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