Striking German doctors blast "sick politics"

BERLIN (Reuters) - Five thousand striking German doctors,many clad in medical gowns and chanting "politics makes yousick", marched through Berlin's government quarter on Friday toprotest for higher pay.

Carrying a symbolic coffin to represent the demise of smalltown practices, the doctors came from across Germany to protestagainst government policies that they said were creatingcrippling bureaucracy and threatening their livelihood.

Organisers said Friday's action shut down a third of alldoctor's surgeries.

"We fear that patients are no longer being treated ashumans," said Martin Grauduszus, president of the Germanassociation of independent physicians. "Turning local surgeriesinto health factories has been forcing us to neglect the moraland ethical aspects of good doctor-patient relationships."

Doctors won pay rises of more than 10 percent in 2006 aftera series of short strikes by specialists and generalpractitioners, but Grauduszus said the 2.5 billion (2 billionpound) euro package was misleading.

He said doctors receive a fixed fee of just 15 euros for ahouse call, a level that made it impossible for countrypractitioners to stay in business.

The German government's flagship 2006 health reformmeasures have come under attack from medical professionals whoargued they failed to solve the system's long-term fundingproblems and led to worse medical care and fewer hospitals.

Since then, various groups of doctors have staged protestsin Berlin but none were as large and boisterous as on Friday.

Critics say Chancellor Angela Merkel's government hasfailed to tackle the central issue of funding, in a countrywith one of the world's costliest health systems.

Torsten Traut, a doctor from Paderborn, described thefederal health budget as a "complete joke".

"These policies stink" was the slogan written on one giantbanner on a trailer full of manure, pulled by a tractor.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)