District hospitals have been taken over by the Ministry of Health from the district councils. However, the responsibility of providing facilities to the young doctors choosing a job in the provinces remains on the shoulders of the local authorities. The district presidents say that no one discussed this issue with them, while the district hospital directors believe that the responsibility rests with the Ministry of Health once it took over the status of founder, Europa Liberă reports.

Before the reform, district councils, as founders of district hospitals, had to provide young specialists with housing or other facilities to stimulate and help them work in the provinces. With the Ministry of Health taking charge, the authority claims that it has agreed with the local administrations that they keep these obligations. Several district presidents that Europa Libera spoke to appeared to be surprised by this news.

“Logically, the ministry should take this responsibility, but I don’t have a concrete answer. We haven’t discussed it. The ministry was interested in taking over the hospitals as soon as possible”, declared the president of Glodeni district, Ion Cojocari. “This issue was not discussed and the status changing procedure has not been completed. We do have social apartments, but they are planned not only for medical personnel, but also for other beneficiaries”, said Veaceslav Fusu, vice-president of Fălești district.

Medical school graduates are reluctant when they are required to work in the districts. The state offers them a one-time allowance of 120 thousand lei, but many of them do not want a rural job because they do not have a guaranteed place to live there, especially if they have already started families and settled in the capital.

At the end of last year, district hospitals passed from the management of local public authorities to the Ministry of Health. The decision stirred quite a bit of controversy, being put up for public consultations only after it was approved in the first reading by Parliament. The initiative came from a group of PAS lawmakers. Neither local authorities nor health experts agreed with the change, which, in their view, was made in haste and had a potential to violate ownership rights. Eventually, it was decided that the hospitals as institutions will report to the Ministry of Health, while the local authorities will keep ownership over the buildings and lands.