The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, spoke on Sunday about the inequities in the guards’ system and announced that changes are being prepared in the way they are organized and paid.
“It is not fair that a guard is paid the same at the Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, for example, where a doctor may see 30-40 patients at night, with a guard at a city hospital, where most of the time he does not see any patients”, said the Minister of Health.
He announced that the guards will be reclassified into three categories: home guard, monitoring guard and emergency guard, and the pay will be differentiated according to the type of guard and the level of the hospital.
“Another discussion would be that the guards be paid on a fixed rate, not on a percentage rate of an income. This rate should be calculated according to the rank of the hospital, according to the specialty and according to other performance indicators. I do not exclude, although this idea was also rejected by the medical body, that in some hospitals 12-hour guards should be implemented. The measures will not be implemented overnight.” said Minister Rogobete, on Antena3.
The official emphasized that the phenomenon of medical exemptions for doctors’ guards must be checked and corrected. “More than 50% of the doctors who benefit from on-call exemption practice medicine after hours, for another 8-10 hours in the private environment or do private duty”added Rogobete.
“You can’t have lumbosciatica only at the public hospital and, with the same medical exemption, work on-call at the hospital or at your private practice”the minister also said.
Robete specified that the situation at Constanța County Hospital, where approximately 70% of doctors in certain departments are exempt from duty, is an example of the phenomenon that distorts the activity.
“Of course, in any collective there are people with real medical problems, which we must take into account. But over 70% of medically exempt staff for on-call duty is a phenomenon that must be investigated by the Control Body”explained Rogobete.
