Nearly a third of hospital positions in Romania are vacant and one in four Romanians has insufficient access to essential healthcare, according to data quoted by Reuters in an article on Romania's healthcare exodus.

The rural areas of the country experience an even more acute shortage of medical personnel, and several hospitals share one doctor per specialty. Reuters quotes the example of a hospital in Viseul de Sus, in the Northern Romanian region of Maramures, which shared one anesthetist with three other hospitals in the region until last year.

The article looks at some of the causes of Romania’s understaffed healthcare system and pinpoints to noncompetitive pay, when compared to the salaries that medical personnel can find abroad, and the lack of a modern medical infrastructure and a functional healthcare system. Corruption and politicized management are other factors determining doctors to leave.

France, Germany and Britain are the countries that are popular with medical staff deciding to leave Romania. At the same time, recruitment efforts eyeing local staff have intensified. Cluj-Napoca is given as an example in the article for hosting several agencies recruiting for Western European hospitals.

The feature also looks at some of the recent measures taken to remedy the situation. Last year, the average monthly wage for the healthcare system was of RON 2,609 (EUR 580), almost double compared to levels of three years before but still below what doctors and nurses can earn abroad.

The Ciolos government created a plan for the medical profession, which included, among others, better promotion opportunities and subsidies for doctors relocating to remote areas, but the new government, led by Sorin Grindeanu, has not approved it yet, Reuters writes.

Some 14,000 doctors and 28,000 nurses left Romania to work abroad between 2009 and 2015, according to the Viorel Husanu, the president of the national healthcare union Sanitas.

The full article can be read here.

Romania’s brain drain: Half of Romania’s doctors left the country between 2009 and 2015

editor@romania-insider.com