The new health bill makes a series of legislative changes regarding the medical staff. It’s not an unknown fact that both Romanian doctors and nurses prefer to leave the Romanian health system, being attracted by the substantial foreign wages.
Their enrollment as state employees, and their uptake as civil servants made the doctors express their grievances publicly at many occasions, even threating with mass resignations several times in the recent years.
The Romanian College of Physicians said that the new bill of health would regulate some aspects of the medical profession. Although not fully agreeing with the chapter on health workers, Dr. Prof. Astarastoae explained that the existing measures in the project could cause some doctors to stay in Romania after completing the residency.
“We have to take into consideration that the negative attitude people have towards doctors can not be controlled by law,†said the president of PaginaMedicala.ro. A few months ago at the General Meeting of the Romanian Medical College, a list of grievances was made public by the doctors. The new bill seems to take into account some of these grievances.
“In principle we agree with the chapter regarding the medical staff in the health bill. A key issue is that the doctors will no longer be considered state employees and civil servants as before. A doctor’s autonomy is important and I hope the state bodies will no longer be concerned about the activity of the doctors and bud out,†continued Prof. Dr. Vasile Astarastoae.
The National Register of staff in the health system, particularly useful
One of the first articles in the bill with the title X shows that the Ministry of Health established the National Register of specialized personnel in the health system, both for contractors and for the non-medical care.
Such a register will be extremely useful, especially considering that hospitals would have managerial autonomy. In addition, such a register should include all persons still in the Romanian health system, providing relevant statistics on actual figures of the exodus of doctors and nurses.
A novelty in the new draft law it the fact that resident doctors will be paid for medical work carried on in public health. Currently, resident physicians have low wages in light of the fact that the work they are making is considered training.
“It is important that the work of the medical residents will be remunerated. Another key issue is the fact that physicians will be able to negotiate their salary based on performance,†said the president of the Romanian College of Physicians.
