During the past few years, the family doctor turned rather into a dispatcher. This refers patients to different specialists and focuses less on the main duties – to prevent diseases, to take prevention measures and to treat patients, Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Svetlana Cebotari was quoted by IPN as saying in the talk show “Fabrika” on Publika TV channel.

The minister stated a bill that was recently approved by the Cabinet is designed to ensure access to primary medical assistance and to change the role of the family doctor, including by allowing this to practice individually. “We aim to offer more forms of activity as part of this assistance. On the one hand, we enable the family doctor to choose from a series of organizational forms. On the other hand, this choice will help ensure the necessary medical services in rural areas,” said Svetlana Cebotari.

She noted that the rural areas are now 43% covered with family doctors, while the urban areas 57% at a time when the population is larger in villages than in towns. “The 1,667 doctors available now cannot ensure the necessary volume of services and there are many villages that do not have doctors and these lack primary medical assistance services,” stated the minister.

According to Svetlana Cebotari, the old age of family doctors is another problem. “Many of the health professionals are of an old age and the administrative territories served by these risk remaining without medical services tomorrow,” she stated.

Mircea Buga, senior state adviser to the Prime Minister responsible for health protection and social development, said  the family doctor’s role was diminished to the detriment of family medicine and in favor of specialized and hospital assistance. “The family doctor’s role of doorkeeper through whom 80% of all the medical needs of the population were to go is not so evident. Only 23% of all the admissions in the hospital sector are performed through the family doctor,” he stated, noting this means that most of the patients reach heath specialists by avoiding the family doctor. Mircea Buga said the decisional power of the family doctor in Moldova is considerably diminished.

Last week, the Cabinet approved a bill to amend and supplement a number of legal acts and solve a number of problems faced by the primary medical assistance sector. When this is adopted by Parliament, the role of the family doctors in the health system will increase essentially.