The medical system in the Republic of Moldova experiences a shortage of about 700 doctors. Also, there are over 1,200 vacancies for medical personnel with secondary education, Minister of Health Ala Nemerenco informed in a program on the public station Radio Moldova. According to her, many districts have an acute shortage of family doctors. In 18 districts of Moldova, there is no forensic pathologist. The state is making efforts to encourage the employment of young specialists in medical institutions in districts, IPN reports.
The minister noted that the shortage of medical staff is experienced by Moldova and also by other states. Many districts in Moldova experience an acute shortage of family doctors as most of the doctors choose to work in larger cities.
“We need over 700 doctors. The nurses and staff with secondary education who graduated from colleges are now being distributed and the institutions reported 1,200 vacancies that need to be filled. The problem is not the absence of doctors, but the fact that we have a disparity, a geographical difference. If we refer to family doctors, who are the basis of the system, the urban areas are very well covered. In the northern districts, we have a coverage with family doctors of almost 100%. In Chisinau, we have 6.2 family doctors per 10,000 people. This indicator is almost better than in the European Union, but in some districts, we have 2.2 – 2.5 family doctors per 10,000 people. With such a large number of registered people, a family doctor will not cope. We must motivate doctors to go to work in these areas. It costs the state much more if there is no doctor in a locality than to pay allowances for the doctor to commute,” Ala Nemerenco stated in the program “Public Space” on Radio Moldova.
The official noted that there is an acute shortage of specialists, especially in the fields of anesthesia and intensive care, radiology and medical imaging, cardiology, pediatrics.
“We still lack forensic pathologists, neonatologists, cardiologists, oncologists. If we talk about hospital care, we are short of anesthesiologists, reanimatologists. For example, we don’t have any forensic pathologist in 18 districts. In the autumn of last year, we obtained a considerable increase in salaries and in the last three years we have announced a higher number of residency places. But it is not easy to fill the vacant position because in medicine, unlike other specialties in which you learn for 3-4 years, in our country you learn for at least 9 years, at most – 14 years. What we have today in studies will be reflected in the system in 10 years. Studies show that the migration of medical specialists is not influenced by the salary, but primarily by the working conditions,” stated Ala Nemerenco.
On June 13, Parliament adopted a bill to amend the Law on Health Protection, according to which young specialists in medicine and pharmacy will benefit from increased allowances and compensation from the state budget. According to the new amendments, the state will reimburse the travel expenses of medical personnel who commute daily. Also, the list of personnel benefiting from the one-time allowance of 120,000 lei was extended to include young specialists with higher education, such as optometrists, licensed general nurses, radiologic technologists.
