Doctors and Society

From the eyes of Doctor Dan Pahontu

“I wouldn’t have written the following text if in the last few days the media would not have published an article that calls into question the moral integrity and professionalism of the whole social body – that of doctors, occurring in a context in which the media’s central debating alleged failure on all sides of a respectable medical personality in its nineties.

You don’t have to be too keen to notice that the mass media’s frequent articles and discussions in print or audio-video format depict the “guild of doctors” as the source of the most unpleasant problems of society. Romanian doctors have become scapegoats. He either demands bribes, leaps into medical negligence or malpractice.

Far From my intention in any way is to excuse the brutality, incompetence or, God forbid, criminal acts that must be firmly charged by press and society. Maybe not accidental is the interest of young performance capable people in medicine than it was let’s say 20 years ago. WHAT KIND OF DOCTORS AND HEALTH CARE SYSTEM WILL ENSURE OUR HEALTH IS AN ISSUE THAT I THINK WE SHOULD WORRY ABOUT MORE AND MORE. IT IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE SOCIETY AT LARGE AS WELL AS OUR DECISION MAKERS.

It is hard not to think about the young doctors who, after six hard years of college, after five, six or seven years of residency, have a salary of 520 Lei per month (about 125Euro/month). They are often married!!!

There is no social support. I remember the times when doctors, after being assigned a job, they would also get a home and a pay comparable with other budgeted positions.
Seems as even the respect from peers was different, and this despite the stubbornness with which most of them remain in their country to work in conditions rightly described MISERABLE, in a HEALTH SYSTEM THAT FAILS TO BE MENDED BY JOURNALISM. But how can we speak of respect when the current pension system is an injustice that I would not hesitate to qualify as cynical towards our fellow retirees. But that is another story.

Of course, the blame for this situation belongs to a large extent to doctors and their organizations. Medical envy, as it’s easily seen in newspapers and on television, breeds monsters.

I finish this article with hope for better times in which measure and respect can govern the Romanian society as well as the Romanian health-care system.”