New president of the German Medical Council may back reform

The president of the German Medical Council, Karsten Vilmar, aged 69, announced his resignation last week at the organisation's annual meeting, after 21 years in office. He will be succeeded by Jïrg-Dietrich Hoppe, a member of the Christian Democrat party, who is expected to be more cooperative about the controversial health system reforms being proposed by the minister of health, Green Party member Andrea Fischer.

Throughout the meeting, representatives of doctors' organisations criticised the government's health reforms, which …