Eight districts in Moldova face an acute shortage of family doctors. The average norm is 6.6 units of family doctor per 10,000 people, but the number of such doctors in Cantemir, Leova, Hancesti, Causeni, Rezina, Ungheni, Falesti, and Sangerei is twice lower. The situation is the worst in Cantemir, where one family doctor provides services for almost 3,000 people.

In municipalities, there is a family doctor for about 1,600 people. “The shortage of personnel in medical institutions cannot ensure a high quality of services there. The working family doctors are overtired as they have to work over hours. Thus, patients’ dissatisfaction and the danger to public health increases,” it is said in a report by the National Health Management Center.

The document reveals that the number of family doctors and medical assistants has continuously decreased in Moldova over the last few years. There were about 1,850 family doctors in the country in 2011, while in 2014 the figure fell by almost 150.

Compared with the EU member states, the number of family doctors in Moldova is very low. Besides the shortage of medical personnel at national level, the distribution of family doctors is rather non-uniform. Thus, most of the family doctors are concentrated in municipalities, while the smaller towns and villages face shortages. The larger towns are mainly short of medical assistants.