In the spring, Federal Councilor Berset will present his master plan. GP Switzerland will decide what should happen with the GP initiative. Do you agree that the problems of medical care will then finally be solved?
One-third of freelance physicians are older than sixty. They are looking for young colleagues to take over their practices. Many of the colleagues believe that the practice is an important part of their retirement plan. So they will want to sell their practice to the highest bidder. However, young colleagues will not usually be among the most bidding interested parties. More than half of the junior doctors are female, and more than half of them work less than sixty percent of the time. It is easy to understand that physicians working part-time have no interest in getting into debt with a few hundred thousand francs and paying off debts over ten to twenty years. So you’re not going to take over an old practice for a lot of money.
Recent history shows that the old practices are being bought by health insurance companies and other investors, especially in urban areas. Health insurers seem to have any funds they want to buy practices, and then often just close them down and pass patients on to their health centers. In addition to the health insurance companies, there are also active investors on the market today who are also buying up orphaned practices at good prices in order to then operate them with salaried physicians. By the way, this phenomenon has been known to pharmacists for several years. After all, more than fifty percent of all pharmacies are owned by larger companies, and the majority of pharmacists no longer work as independent SMEs, but are employed, often in their “own” pharmacy, which is not outwardly recognizable as a “chain pharmacy”!
So, dear colleagues, you have the option of mothballing your practice or selling it off to the highest bidder, health insurer or investor group, or you have your own master plan. Continue to invest in your practice after the age of fifty. Give your practice a makeover. Create space for at least one additional colleague to practice with you at the same time. The young colleague enjoys working in your bright, friendly and modern furnished practice. She is proud that her senior practice partner already calls electronic medical records his own and has digital X-ray equipment. The colleague is thrilled that she can buy into the practice step by step without taking a financial risk, and she has already found a colleague who can join her as a part-time family woman and part-time family physician.
Your master plan could look like this or something similar. By the way: Neither the GP initiative nor Federal Councilor Berset’s master plan will solve your problem. So don’t wait for the miracle from Bern!
Cordially, your
