Around 700 doctors and 1,800 nurses commute to a different town for work. Last year, Parliament adopted legislation according to which the government will cover transportation expenses for health care workers who commute to a different town. However, it is not yet clear whether these costs will be covered partially or fully, and how they will be calculated.

In 2024, 12.3 million lei will be allocated from the state budget for 2,500 commuting medical workers. In a reply offered to Radio Europa Liberă, the Ministry of Health specified the number of doctors and nurses who commute daily. However, the institution does not specify whether the state will partially or fully refund their transport expenses and how they will be calculated.

“The amounts are not finalized, as changes may occur. At this moment, the draft Government decision is at the approval stage”, the reply states. The draft has not yet been published for public consultation.

The Ministry of Finance told Radio Europa Liberă that, in accordance with the requests and estimates made by the Ministry of Health, 12.3 million lei were allocated in the state budget for the year 2024 in order to compensate the expenses incurred by medical personnel.

Europa Liberă previously wrote about the medical workers who commute from Chisinau to Orhei or the neighboring districts. It is about 20 doctors and 35 nurses, who pay from their own pockets for public transport or fuel to get to work.

The medical vice-director of the Orhei District Hospital, Elena Palanciuc, mentioned at the time that the commuters are “a lifeline” for the institution, since, without them, it would have a large staff shortage. The person in charge also said that the Ministry of Health asked her, as early as 2022, for data on how many hospital employees commute and how many kilometers each one travels.