WHO Concerned Over Romanian Doctors Migration Rate

The migration rate of doctors in Romania exceeds 2%, a fact which is termed as code red by the World Health Organization (WHO), and can lead to a crisis with short- or long term effects on the healthcare system, Vasile Astarastoae, head of the Romanian Doctors Council (CMR), said Friday.

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“Four percent of Romanian doctors requested the needed documents to leave the country to work abroad, a percentage which has not changed since last year. Romanian authorities should be concerned with what is called a “code red” in view of WHO,” Astarastoae said.

According to him, a 2% migration rate of doctors brings about a red code warning, signaling the authorities that the system might go into a short- or long-term crisis, which will lead to its breakdown.

In the first nine months of this year, 957 doctors requested the Romanian Doctors Council to issue certificates of moral integrity they need to go work abroad.

These numbers were presented in a meeting of the medical professional organizations in Central and South-Eastern Europe (ZEVA), attended by doctors from Romania, Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Poland and Serbia, and also by secretary general of World Medical Association, Otmar Kloiber.

“We will have healthcare units resembling museums, as there will be no qualified persons to treat patients,” Astarastoae added.

Romania ranked 33^rd out of the 35 countries, with only 1.9 doctors per one thousand inhabitants, while the average in the states of the European Union reached 3.3, according to a hierarchy made by WHO.

He added the statistics of the Romanian Health Ministry are inaccurate, as medicine school graduates are also included in the total 59,000 doctors in Romania.

Statistics of the Romanian Doctors Council show there are 47,000 doctors, of which 7,500 are interns.

“The quality of a healthcare system depends on the qualifications of its doctors. Romanian doctors leave the country because of low wages, because foreign healthcare units benefit from modern technology, and because doctors abroad have a different social position. A doctor is seen as a simple clerk in the Romanian environment,” Astarastoae added.

On the other hand, Kloiber said migration is affecting poor and rich countries alike.

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