Barbara Steffens, Health Minister at the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia stated that Greek doctors can contribute to the further improvement of the German health system, Deutsche Welle (DW) Greek service reports.

The NRW health minister attended a welcome event for Greek doctors in Dortmund and noted that the “well trained physicians bring their own knowledge and experience” to Germany.

According to Deutsche Welle, about one quarter of the German population resides in the North-Rhine Westphalia state. The number of foreign doctors in the region has reached 9,400, while 1,125 of them (12.1%) are Greeks, followed by Romanians (802) and Syrians (450).

“Germany needs the inflow of specialized employees, especially in the health sector,” Ms. Barbara Steffens said in an announcement, making specific reference to the cooperation between the state government and the Thessaloniki Medical Association.

DW also notes that, at the end of 2013, 2,847 Greek doctors were working in Germany. Greeks are the second largest group of doctors after Romanians (3,454), followed by Austrians (2,611) and the Polish (1,830).