Vucinq '% Germany: Don't come and get our nurses.

Germany urgently needs nurses and caregivers. Without the workforce from abroad, many clinics and hospitals in Germany could not work. The need, however, is still great. According to various estimates, 50,000 to 100,000 health workers are still missing in Germany. This crisis, Germany tries to soften with the withdrawal of qualified foreign nurses. Balkan countries are among the countries from which Germany wants to attract nurses. Nurses from Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia come to Germany. Based on a “project German Society for International Co-operation, GIZ and the Federal Labour Agency, BA, “Triple Win- Project” has also been struck with Serbia, Bosnia, Tunisia and the Philippines.

It should not have been good news for the Ministry of Health in Berlin on Thursday, when it suddenly became known, that Serbia interrupts sending nurses to Germany. Even this agreement Serbia could completely terminate next year. According to Health Minister Zoran Gjerdevic, a current agreement has been suspended and Serbia could completely cancel the deal with Germany next year.

Vucinq-Spahn dispute

In this context, several Vuciqi statements in a television interview by the end of 2019 have been brought to the German media these two days. In this television interview, Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq has mentioned German Health Minister Jens Spahn, who last year was in Kosovo and Mexico to attract the workforce to health. With critical tones, Vuciq has been expressed for Minister Spahn's tour of the workforce. The German agency dpa and the newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” quoted Vucicin as saying: “I come to Serbia and take your nurses. I told her in the face, I don't want you to come to Serbia and get my nurses. I appreciate you, you're a great minister. You have the best healthcare system in the world. But don't come to Serbia”.

The German Health Ministry did not want to comment on these statements. But it is said that Jens Spahn has never actively sought nurses in Serbia. German Health Minister Jens Spahn himself has reacted Thursday to Vuciki's statement. According to “Spahn has dismissed Vuciki's accusations, likely referred to Spahn with words, he will be “taken by” nurse there. Spahn replied, I read “now for conversations with him, that I never developed in this form. ”

Even a spokeswoman for the Federal Labour Agency has expressed regarding statements that the agreement could be suspended, that “this is not good for us, but of course, we respect this decision”. GIZ has formulated a similar attitude. The Federal Agency stressed, however, that it is already known, which in Serbia is currently viewed as “with criticism, that earlier” a transition of labour forces from Serbia to Germany.

Young nurses face difficulties

German Health Minister Jens Spahn has always stressed that taking over the labour force of nurses is only part of the solution to the crisis of staff shortages. But his critics in Germany say, the obstacles are bigger than thought. The German Caritasí Association already warns of <x0 postcolonialist position” under the motto “is enough that we in Germany solve the” problem. Caritas' president, Peter Neher, in Eastern Europe, says they are now missing nurses and doctors. Even the integration of young nurses is not as simple as thought.

A study of the “foundation Last year's Hans-Böckler” confirms that they often face two concepts of custody and nursing with each other. In the hospitals, researchers have recorded two camps of consolidated nurses and young people from other countries. In many countries of origin, nurses attend higher school and also take on medical duties. Caring for the patient's food or hygiene is unusual for new nurses. Many thus have the feeling that they should work “under” value.

According to the Ministry of Labor's latest data in Germany under the “Trple Win 2013” project, 5797 nurses from Serbia, Bosnia, Philippines and Tunisia have come to Germany.

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*Taken by DW,