In Romania, there are 7,000 schools operating in 18,000 buildings and no more than 1,000 school doctors. Practically only one in 7 schools has a doctor, but according to the Ministry of Health, medical personnel are mainly concentrated in schools in Bucharest and big cities. Although salaries are becoming more and more attractive – reaching 7000 – 7500 lei for a specialist doctor and 9000 – 10,000 lei for a primary care doctor – only schools in Bucharest and in big cities still manage to attract school doctors: in smaller cities there are fewer school doctors and less, and almost none in rural areas.

School medicine in Romania in numbers (data source: Ministry of Health):

• 7000 schools that works in 18,000 buildings

• 1000 school doctors – one doctor for 7 schools
  

• Salary of a school doctor: from 7000 – 7500 lei (doctor-specialist in school medicine) at 9,000 – 10,000 lei (primary school doctor)

• There are school doctors concentrated especially in Bucharest and in big citiesless in cities and almost none in the countryside

• Can family doctors fill the shortage of school doctors? Romania has 11 thousand family doctors (representing 20% of the total number of 55,000 doctors nationwide), the majority is concentrated in the urban environment. In the village, hundreds of settlements do not have a family doctor.

Salaries are more and more tempting, school doctors are less and less

For a long time, a significant part of school doctors consisted of doctors who did not complete clinical residency in other medical specialties. Even the Minister of Health, Aleksandru Rafila, says this.

In addition, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carole Davila in Bucharest will have, starting this autumn, postgraduate courses, and it will be possible to obtain a certificate in school medicine, which will be done by school doctors who are currently active, as well as doctors who will become school doctors in the future , explains Professor Dr. Viorel Djinga, Rector of UMF Carol Davila in Bucharest.

“In 1-2 years, both existing school doctors and those who want to participate in competitions organized by local authorities will be better prepared,” says Professor Dr. Viorel Djinga, Rector of UMF Bucharest.

“We have created a training program so that any doctor can go through this training program and become a school doctor. For those who are already school doctors, we will give them a period of time during which they can also complete this training program, which means updating, and do school medicine,” said Alexandrou Rafila, Minister of Health.

A child at the doctor / Photo: Chernetska | Dreamstime.com

Against the backdrop of a shortage of personnel in this field, salaries in school medicine are becoming more and more attractive over time: according to the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafil, the salary of a specialist doctor reaches the level of school medicine. , 7,000 – 7,500 lei, and 9,000 – 10,000 lei for a primary care physician.

Good earnings, but doctors still don’t fly.

On the other hand, the increase in income in recent years has attracted doctors from other specialties, who have become school doctors, but not enough yet.

The crisis of school doctors is closely related to the crisis of family doctors: there are 11,000 family doctors in Romania, of which 6,000 will retire in the coming years

The crisis of school doctors in our country is closely related to the crisis of family doctors: the phenomena, moreover, are similar – doctors are concentrated in Bucharest, in big cities and hundreds of rural settlements without a family doctor and without a school doctor.

Romania now has 11,000 family doctors – 20% of the total of 55,000 doctors nationally – but hundreds of rural settlements do not have a family doctor.

If we look to the future, it seems that things look even worse: according to the data provided by the University of Prof., there are currently 29,974 resident doctors working in Romania, of which 1,477 – i.e. 4.9% – are family medicine residents. Dr. Viorel Djinga, rector of the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. However, currently 20% of the medical staff in our country – approximately 11,000 doctors out of a total of 55,000 doctors in Romania – are family doctors, and 6,000 family doctors are due to retire in the coming years. However, the number of places allocated for family medicine in the internship is about 400 – about 7% of the total number.

Dr. Viorel Jinga, Rector of UMF Carol Davila / Photo: Agerpres

In general, in order not to fall into a crisis of family doctors, “we have to correlate the number of residents we train with the need for places,” says Health Minister Alexandru Rafila.

On the other hand, UMF Rector Carol Davila, Professor Dr. Viorel Jinga, says that the University of Medicine and Pharmacy is trying to change the method of training family doctors in order to attract as many residents as possible to this medical specialty.

So far, family medicine is not among the medical specialties most in demand by residents. Instead, dermatology, imaging radiology, psychiatry, pediatric neurology or ophthalmology are at the top.

“Do you think there can be a school doctor in a commune where there is no family doctor?”

Going back to school medicine, schools are under local authorities, so in theory the role of local authorities is to recruit school doctors.

However, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila says that “no matter how hard we try, these people must physically exist who want and come to work in schools.”

“We also have a very large disparity, because there are many school doctors in Bucharest, a little less in the big cities, and almost none in the countryside,” says Alexandru Rafila.

School / Photo: Agerpres

In settlements where there is no school doctor, the most convenient solution would be for a family doctor to serve the school as well, according to the Minister of Health: “First of all, the school should have an assistant. Secondly, we have to find in the communities where we do not have the opportunity to have a school doctor, we have to work with the family doctor, who should be in the first place, and where we can, together with the local authorities, to convince them to work in the community , also serve the school from the point of view of medical assistance and information – because there is also an informational component.”

But how to attract family doctors and school doctors in rural areas? Minister Alexandru Rafila says that an attractive salary, a house or even a car risks not being enough, because it is a matter of a set of factors that are related to each other: if a woman is a family doctor or a woman school doctor who, for example, has two children, he chooses a job in rural areas, he will also need facilities for raising children while he is at work: kindergarten, kindergarten, etc.

“Something has changed, but we can change it only together with the local authorities, but there are situations when we cannot do it. I will give you an example: do you think that in a commune where there is no family doctor, we can have a school doctor?”, concluded the Minister of Health Alexandru Rafila.

Photo: Dreamstime.com, Agerpres.

Read also:

• This is what the list of medical specialties most in demand by residents looks like: dermatology is in first place. Is there a threat of being left without family doctors?