In the German town of Lette, the butcher is driving a campaign to lure a new GP, writes Derek Scallyin Munich
WANTED: general practitioner with a taste for German sausages.
Two months after losing their only doctor, locals in the German village of Lette hope to lure a replacement with an all-inclusive package of free food and services.
Spearheading the head hunt is local butcher Niko Ringhoff. He has promised the successful applicant free lunches and all-you- can-eat meat for the opening party in the new practice. The local barber has promised free haircuts, the baker bread rolls and the local housewives cookery courses in case the new doctor is a bachelor who can’t cook.
The local hotel promises to put the lucky applicant up until he or she finds a home, while the new doctor can look forward to complimentary flowers from the local florist.
“Man or woman, the nationality is immaterial, the main thing with our initiative is to show the newcomer will be welcome in our town,” Ringhoff says.
The only doctor in Lette, west of Bielefeld, retired in September, leaving the 2,200 villagers without local medical services. The nearest doctor is in the next town, 8km down the road – a 15-minute drive that, in an emergency, could be the difference between life and death.
“We go there, but it’s just not as personal – it’s an outsider,” says the 30-year-old butcher.
Lette’s experience is shared with towns and villages all over Germany, as retiring rural doctors are not replaced by younger colleagues who are settled in more profitable city-based practices.
“It’s very rural here and you need a car to get around,” Ringhoff adds.
“The bus connections are poor. Fifteen years ago the petrol station closed, we have to share a priest and now the doctor is gone.”
Since hatching their promotion plan three weeks ago, the telephones in Lette haven’t stopped ringing. Unfortunately all callers so far have been journalists, not doctors, but Ringhoff isn’t giving up yet.
Casting his net even wider to lure applicants, he has begun exporting his wurst to a dealer in Ireland.
He, in turn, is hawking the wurst – bratwurst and mettwurst, Krakow wurst and other specialities – to food markets around the country.
With recipes perfected over 60 years, the butcher hopes his meat will bait a medic before things in Lette take a turn for the wurst.