Velia Wortman

Defining moment professionally?  - In 1992 a postcard fell out of a doctor's magazine from the Deutsche Herbstblatt. And this, for those of you who are medical people who have read the very important book, The House of God, which is a parody of the medical system know that the fates of many people in the House of God are determined by postcards falling out of magazines. And this postcard said, starting next month, there will be acupuncture courses run in the city of Nuremberg. So, I thought, how I can kind of rescue myself from my humdrum existence as a mother, and my GP existence? So, what the hell? Let me try it. And so that was 1993. And after that, my career in Chinese medicine took off.

What changed that you would have never expected? - There's a part of the free university, the Humboldt University, huge hospital called the Charité, where research is done into acupuncture, into Qigong, acupressure, and Tuina. Okay, all of this is happening here. Unthinkable 30 years ago. Unthinkable.

Another change that I could have not imagined when I came to Germany from the UK in 1981 is that there would be a doctor shortage in 2024. This was unimaginable. And we have a very severe shortage. It's horrible.

How did you cope? – I can’t retire.

What would you say about older candidates to a CEO or CMO who is hiring? - We belong to a generation where we're willing to work very hard. And everybody's talking about work -life balance. Hello, in 1976, when I was starting medical school, it was work-work balance, right? For the young people. It's like, I'm sorry to say this, but it's life-life.

What’s in store for 2025? - And for the future, one of the things that I'm going to do and a lot depends on the elections in Brandenburg, which are this Sunday. If there is a right-wing backlash here in Germany, I will start spending a lot more time fighting the far right and the fascists. This is what I'm going to dedicate myself to.