The German health minister has pledged to push for changes to immigration law to enable more healthcare workers into the country.

Daniel Bahr, speaking to German newspaper Die Welt, said the country needed more nurses and healthcare assistants.

He added that the country had done well to attract more doctors into the country, and that this success needed to be reflected across other health sector roles.

This is seen particularly important given the country’s ageing demographic – the German population’s median age of 45.3 years compares to 40.2 years in the UK, and is the third highest in the world behind Japan (45.4) and Monaco (49.9), according to 2012 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.

As reported by recruiter.co.uk last week, health workers are in “particularly high” demand alongside professionals in electronics, energy, mechatronics, metal, mechanical & automotive engineering and sales, according to the German Federal Employment Agency.

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