Job market completely emptied
Care industry predicts wave of bankruptcies
05/29/2023, 00:00
The federal government wants to better equip nursing studies financially and recognize foreign workers more quickly. However, the law could come too late for some institutions. A lack of staff threatens many home operators.
The association of privately operated care facilities fears a massive wave of bankruptcies in the care industry given the acute shortage of skilled workers. “There is a great danger of a conflagration,” said the President of the Federal Association of Private Providers of Social Services (BPA), Bernd Meurer, the editorial network Germany (RND). There were increasing reports of bankruptcies or plant closures.
All providers are affected, i.e. not only family businesses, but also larger operators and institutions of free welfare. The situation is frightening. “We have to assume that these are no longer isolated cases,” emphasized Meurer. “Then those in need of care and their families will be left behind in large numbers,” warned the head of the association.
Meurer said that almost 70 percent of the member companies stated in a recent survey that they were worried about their economic existence in the near future. Other studies have come to similar conclusions. Meurer named the shortage of skilled workers as the main reason for the tense situation. As a result, home places could not be occupied. If the occupancy slips to 80 percent, a home is “hardly economically viable,” according to the head of the association, which represents more than 13,000 outpatient and inpatient care facilities.
Federal government wants to accelerate foreign recognition
Meurer spoke of a completely empty job market. “The care facilities are just chasing each other’s staff,” he said. He lamented the continued high bureaucratic hurdles in recruiting foreign skilled workers. “Depending on the federal state, it takes far more than a year until a skilled worker is finally recognized. And that in a shortage occupation,” he criticized.
In order to alleviate the emergency, the federal government decided on financial incentives for nursing studies last week. Students in nursing courses at universities should in future receive “reasonable remuneration” for the entire duration of their studies: In addition, nursing degrees from abroad should be recognized more easily in Germany.