Pediatrician despairs of the German health system and makes a bleak prognosis

A pediatrician recounted his difficult past. Until eight years ago, he worked as a pediatrician in the pediatric and adolescent medicine and pediatric surgery departments of a southern German university hospital. This time, he said, "broke" him.

In his Reddit post, he writes that he sometimes worked more than 300 hours per month. 24-hour shifts without a break were the norm, but he only had a few minutes for his patients. "I made decisions that I was sometimes unqualified to make. There were also malpractice cases," he continues.

All of this eventually led to burnout , and the doctor wanted to give up his profession. But then he received a job offer in Switzerland. Today, he works there as a pediatrician in private practice. He says he can "finally perform his profession with high quality and empathy."

He harshly criticizes the German healthcare system: "Today, I look at the German healthcare system with a mixture of anger and disappointment, which I see as in decline." He continues: "It is significantly more expensive relative to GDP than the Swiss healthcare system, yet the quality of care is significantly worse and steadily declining."

He speaks of "heartless, machine-based medicine." Patients must be processed as quickly as possible. He argues that empathetic care is difficult. "Emotionally involved staff become numb or are destroyed by it and leave."

The Reddit user hasn't worked in Germany for some time, but believes the system hasn't changed: "Students and interns are exposed to pressure from the start, which many are unable to cope with." He describes a future shortage of many doctors and hundreds of thousands of nurses and believes the current government is giving the issue little priority.

A new report from Medscape Medical News reveals how doctors in Germany are really doing. More than 1,065 physicians participated in the online survey from December 2024 to March 2025.

When asked: "How happy are you generally with your professional life?" the following answered:

• 14 percent said they were "very happy"
• 48 percent said they were "rather happy"
• 22 percent with "neither happy nor unhappy"
• 17 percent "rather unhappy"
• 3 percent with "very unhappy"

The survey also shows that 27 percent of respondents feel burned out at least occasionally, and 5 percent feel depressed. 12 percent experience both, while 55 percent experience neither. 20 percent attribute their burnout and depression entirely to their job. Another 52 percent answered "mostly," 25 percent said "partially," and 3 percent don't see their job as responsible at all.