Health | Cottbus: The first 36 medical students of 1200

Modern medical technology at the Medical University of Lausitz, demonstrated on the brain of assistant doctor Abdullah Makni Photo: dpa/Frank Hammerschmidt In July 2024, the previously municipal Carl Thiem Clinic in Cottbus was converted into a medical university. Now, with the start of the winter semester on October 12th, the first 36 students will begin their training here. Professor Eckhard Nagel, chairman of the Lausitz Medical University “Carl Thiem” (MUL-CT), proudly reported on Monday that it was the earliest possible date estimated by all experts.

For the time being, the “Haus null” on the clinic site near the main train station, which previously housed the emergency room, has been converted into a seminar building. In addition, “House 50”, previously a laboratory, now serves as a laboratory for the students. “The library is still under construction,” says Nagel. None of the numerous new buildings planned are finished yet. But they will be needed if 200 students are accepted per year in the future and 1,200 young people complete their medical studies at the same time in 2040.

The 3.7 billion euros that the federal and state governments are donating for the gradual development and expansion of the 40th medical university in the Federal Republic must be invested in Cottbus by 2038 at the latest. The money will be diverted from funding for the regions of Germany affected by the coal phase-out. Lower Lusatia, which has been characterized by brown coal mines for over a century and a half, accounts for 10.3 billion euros.

When there was still a left-wing faction in the state parliament - the party failed in the 2024 election because of the five percent hurdle - MP Ronny Kretzschmer initially doubted whether it was really a good idea to put such a large chunk of the total funds available for structural change into a single university clinic. Ultimately, the medical college in Neuruppin, which is supported by municipal hospitals and municipalities but is classified as private, only received a fraction of this amount.

But Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD), a son of Lusatia, was not deterred. He is also expected at the matriculation ceremony for the first 36 students on October 11th at the Cottbus State Theater, alongside Brandenburg's Science Minister Manja Schüle (SPD). The Prime Minister hopes that the project will provide a solution to the particularly severe shortage of doctors in Lusatia.

It is already very difficult to get doctor's appointments there. In addition, a third of the area's doctors are 60 or older and will soon be retiring. Another third are between 50 and 60 years old and will also need to be replaced in the foreseeable future. In the best case scenario, studying medicine takes six years. The graduates can then work in hospitals or doctor’s offices. In order to take over a practice yourself, you need specialist training and various further training courses, which take another four years.

Nevertheless, the founding of the Medical University is already a blessing for medical care in Lusatia, explains Professor Nagel, using the example of skin diseases. The position of chief physician of dermatology in Cottbus has not been filled since 2021. Patients had to wait a long time for treatment. However, since working at a medical university is more attractive than at a municipal hospital, there is now a chief physician and six young doctors have also been hired for this specialty.

»With the 36 students we are getting into the “real” university life, because without students there is no university.«

“With the 36 students, we are getting into the ‘real’ everyday life of a university, because without students there is no university,” says Professor Adelheid Kuhlmey happily. Ten students are from Brandenburg, others come from Berlin and, for example, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, and one student is a native of Russia. The graduates can later freely decide where they will work. But Professor Nagel promises that the university will do everything in its power to provide many arguments for staying in livable and lovable Lusatia. »We are an aging region. We are pleased that young people are now coming to us,” says the professor.

In response to the objection that the right-wing scene, which is strong in Cottbus and the surrounding area, is damaging the image of Lusatia, he counters that people from all over the world study at the city's technical university and that the 4,300 employees at the medical university come from 60 different nations. Five or six Tunisian nurses with excellent German skills have just been hired. Since the university clinic can only operate 900 of 1,100 beds due to a lack of nursing staff, "we have to be grateful for that," says Nagel. The MUL-CT is currently hiring 50 to 100 new employees every month, including many returnees who had moved away when there were mass layoffs in the lignite industry after the fall of the Wall and there were no other prospects in their old homeland. In the future, the university clinic is expected to employ 5,600 people.

There were several thousand applications for the coveted study places, although it should be taken into account that those interested are allowed to specify several desired study locations in the nationwide admission process for medical studies.

First of all, the Medical University is also dependent on rooms being made available by the Cottbus University of Technology. “We are still under construction, nothing is finished at the beginning,” says Nagel. But the professor hopes that his own campus will have taken shape by the early 2030s. The Medical University treats 35,000 inpatients and more than 120,000 outpatients every year. Of the targeted 80 professors, 20 are already there.

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