​There is not necessarily a shortage of doctors in Romania – except for family doctors, where approximately 1,400 doctors are still needed – but the biggest problem is the fact that of the 55,000 doctors licensed to practice freely, more than 50% are concentrated in Bucharest – approximately 17,000 doctors – in Cluj, Dolja, Timisoara, Tirgu Mures and Iași, says the President of the College of Physicians, Professor Dr. Daniel Coriu. The rest – 36 counties – share approximately half of Romania’s doctors – 27,000 doctors.

Doctors only gather in 5 counties and avoid the rest of the country because they want to practice their profession safely

The President of the College of Doctors makes an unexpected statement: in general, Romania does not actually have a shortage of doctors: “In general, we do not have a shortage of doctors. It may take a few thousand more. But the fact that they are concentrated in only a few districts, this imbalance, the distribution of doctors is a big problem. We do not have a very big shortage of doctors, maybe only at the level of family doctors – 1400 or so. But otherwise, we don’t have a very big deficit. We can somehow compensate for it, but this imbalance is dramatic,” says Daniel Coriu.

Most doctors choose to work only in large centers and avoid the rest of the country due to the lack of conditions for safe medical practice, the president of the College of Doctors emphasizes. why “Because the doctor will want an attractive job. He wants to have high-performance equipment at hand, he wants to practice the way he learned in residency. If he doesn’t manage to stay in Bucharest or Craiova or in a big center, he will probably emigrate. Here we are talking about two Romanians. The second part of Romania, the second Romania, unfortunately, the conditions for safe medical practice. This is very important, because the doctor is blamed, because the doctor is assimilated into the medical system.”

There is no miracle solution: “When the infrastructure problem is solved, the imbalance of doctors will automatically be solved”

Daniel Coriu emphasizes that there is no miraculous solution to this problem, the only solution is to develop the infrastructure so that doctors can practice their profession safely everywhere and patients can be equally well served everywhere: “We must offer the conditions for a doctor to work equally in Bucharest and in Slobozia , both in Galata and Braila, wherever he wanted to go, he felt safe, and the patient was equally well cared for, regardless of the place. This is the biggest problem – infrastructure. When the infrastructure problem is solved, this imbalance will be solved automatically.

The conclusion of the President of the College of Doctors: “The solution is the development of Romania, there is no miraculous solution. The moment you create a powerful center, with technology, with a highway, with infrastructure, with schools, we will also have doctors, there will be young doctors who will want to go there. Salaries of doctors in Romania are currently solid. I am talking about the budgetary sphere, I am not talking about family medicine, because this is a separate issue. But we have to find a mechanism by which we can separate those who work harder.”

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