The medical institutions in Balti municipality experience a shortage of qualified specialists. At the beginning of this year, the hospitals and family doctor’s centers of the town needed 25 doctors. Among these were cardiologists, ophthalmologists, oncologists, anesthesiologists and psychiatrists, IPN reports.

At the Consultative Center, which is the largest medical institution, about 60% of the doctors are of retirement age. But young specialists refuse to come to Balti owing to the low salary and the lack of accommodations, said the institution’s administrator Tatiana Sochirca.

Feodora Rodiukova, head of the Balti Health Division, said that six doctors were employed at public medical institutions in Balti last year, but there is a danger that these will go abroad or to private clinics. The young specialists working at medical institutions in Balti cannot benefit from the concessions provided based on a Government decision of 2007 because this refers only to persons working in rural areas. The local public administration intends to lodge the young medical specialists at the dorms of the local Medical College, but this will not solve the problem for good.

Feodora Rodiukova also said that much more efficient measures on the part of the central authorities are needed such as raising the salaries and creating living conditions for young specialists and outfitting the local medical institutions with modern equipment.