gms | German Medical Science

GMS Journal for Medical Education

Gesellschaft für Medizinische Ausbildung (GMA)

ISSN 2366-5017

Investment in childcare facilities as task of the State and the Federal Countries

Abstract medicine

Search Medline for

GMS Z Med Ausbild 2012;29(2):Doc24

doi: 10.3205/zma000794, urn:nbn:de:0183-zma0007943

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/journals/zma/2012-29/zma000794.shtml

Received: March 16, 2011
Revised: May 4, 2011
Accepted: May 23, 2011
Published: April 23, 2012

© 2012 Strehl.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Abstract

Traditionally hospitals and university hospitals have had a high proportion of women and were therefore always faced with the problem of childcare. As a result of the changing perception of family roles (both parents working, men playing a bigger part in childcare), the demand for appropriate support is growing.

Compared to other federal states, Baden-Württemberg is lagging behind in the provision of childcare facilities and needs to catch up and seriously expand capacities. This first of all requires investment and despite the ban of cooperation the federal government could do more, especially for medical schools in the universities. There is also, however, the issue of operating costs, which university hospitals cannot carry on their own. Public investment so far needs to be stepped up.

In terms of distribution, employee representation has a strong legal position. All practical experience suggests that they tend to lobby for quotas according to social aspects. This sometimes leads to other professional groups relevant to university hospitals and couples being disadvantaged.

So the necessary measures are clear: more state and federal money for investment and operating childcare facilities but also staff representation laws of Baden-Württemberg could also do with an update to make them more family-friendly.


Competing interests

The author declares that he has no competing interests.