The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, announced on Thursday, April 9, that he has modified the order that is transparent on the ministry’s website to correct the way in which the work of resident doctors is recognized and paid, so that they are compulsorily paid for the guards performed outside the normal working hours.
“If we’re holding them accountable, there also needs to be clear recognition of their work. Residents are not spectators in the system. They’re already part of real-time decisions and patient care every day.
Residents are not an annex of the specialist doctor, the primary doctor or the “professor”. They are the future of the health system and the ones we rely on for an honest construction, which no longer takes into account the past, but the present and the future”the minister said.
That is why Rogobete announced that he has modified the Order of the Minister of Health No. 870, currently transparent on the website of the Ministry of Health, “to correct an injustice that could no longer be ignored in the way resident physicians’ work is recognized and paid for.”
“Resident doctors, during the training period in the specialty, will be mandatorily included in the on-call line, in the health unit where they do their internship, doubling the on-call doctor and performing on-call to complete the normal duration of working time”
The minister says that the residents can do guard duty only if they want and depending on the year of training: from the first year they can enter the guard line (but not the first line), and from the third year they can also do the first line, always under the supervision of a doctor.
It also points out that all guards made outside the normal schedule must be paid by the hospital.
“They are the generation that will carry this profession forward, and the health care system needs them. So how we treat them early on tells very clearly what kind of system we’re building. That’s the direction we’re going.”
He says that although he was a resident physician for only 2 1/2 years and then chose administration, he understood how important the role of resident physicians is in a hospital.
“The resident physician is neither salahor, nor at one’s disposal, nor a ‘filler’ when the on-call lines cannot be covered. The resident doctor is an important pawn in the functioning of the current system and, more importantly, a pawn without which the health system of the future cannot exist.”
According to a recent national study, 97.6% of residents are satisfied with professional training, but there are major problems such as lack of jobs (43%), uncertainty of public health positions, bureaucracy and political influence.
At the same time, 58.8% of doctors prefer a non-clinical environment, being interested in health promotion (53%), prevention (46%) and health management (36%).
Regarding the future, 16.5% want to leave the country, 53.6% consider this option depending on the opportunities, and 31% intend to stay in Romania.
