Health personnel crisis facing Transnistria

Ivan Tcacenko, the self-styled minister of public health of the Transnistrian region, has warned of a potential loss of medical personnel due to extremely low wages, Info-Prim Neo's special corespondent reports. If the medical workers are not given a raise in the foreseeable future, in the next couple of years all this valuable personnel will either quit their jobs or open businesses of their own, said the minister. Ivan Tcacenko suggests a solution would be to revive the practice of paying several wages to medical practitioners. Another solution would be to establish fixed salaries instead of wages based on units of time worked. Labor unions from all the towns in the region asked the authorities for raises, threatening with protest actions if the request is not satisfied. As of this April, the average wage of medical workers has been raised to some 780 rubles (approx. $82), which equals the so-called minimum consumer's basket.