Austria will require 1500 new doctors in rural areas over the next 10 years, President of the Austrian Medical Chamber Artur Wechselberger said at a press conference Tuesday.
"We are only at the beginning of a doctor shortage in country areas," he said, adding that it is already difficult to find doctors to fill open positions.
The problem is expected to get worse due to 56 percent of all current doctors in rural areas reaching retirement age sometime over the next 10 years, Kleine Zeitung newspaper reported.
Wechselberger said if all medicine students at Austrian universities were to work in the country upon graduation then all positions could be filled. Part of the problem however lies in that 25 percent of the students are foreigners, who have a higher tendency to return back to their home countries after finishing their studies.
Additionally, an increasing number of young doctors choose to leave the country due to better conditions abroad.
Both Wechselberger and other Austrian politicians called for measures to be introduced to address the problem, in particular through making working conditions more attractive for doctors.