German strikes; implications for health service

German doctors in the country's clinics have been on strike since March 26, with young assistants as well as senior medical personnel campaigning for salary increases ahead of the next round of negotiations. University clinics in all the Federal states are affected and all hospitals. An estimated 136,000 doctors alone work in the hospital sector and 22,000 in the university clinics.

The action is being led by the Marburger Bund (MB) medical union with a number of other related union organizations and now clearly poses a major economic and political challenge to the government of Angela Merkel. The MB is also calling for improved working conditions and full overtime payments, as well as a 30% increase in basic salary.

The respected Rhine-Westphalian Economic Research Institute (RWI) calculates that the cost of such an increase would be about 3.0 billion euros ($3.6 billion) annually and, if savings could not be made elsewhere in the health service, health fund contribution would have to rise about 0.25%. It is also thought that, if more flexible hours were to be offered, costs could not be reduced significantly.