Alexandru Rafila made a very important last-minute announcement, with a premiere that was decided for millions of Romanians from the whole country, and this because the European authorities want to bring medical personnel from outside the European Union as well, and methods of equalization are being discussed of the professional qualification that will simplify things.
Alexandru Rafila also talks about what needs to change in the medical system in Romania so that the services benefited by the Romanians are much better, according to everyone's expectations, and all these changes will come in time, the authorities trying to implement them as soon as possible faster.
"At the moment we are thinking very seriously, and I would like to organize a new residency exam this spring for the remaining unoccupied places. There are several hundred unoccupied places in the residency exam. In family medicine, almost 90% of the places put up for competition were filled, but in emergency medicine, very few were filled.
We have to make emergency medicine very attractive, there is a staffing crisis in the ambulance services, including in the emergency reception units, and we have to find a solution in such a way that the human resources strategy provides enough staff, to be a mechanism to see why people avoid it, it's not that they work a lot, but there must be a professional comfort.
There must be trust in the coherent development of the system, which is part of the entire health system. We will organize a regional meeting at a high level next year in March in Romania, with the exact topic of the problems related to human resources in health. The representatives of 53 countries of the European region of the WHO are participating.
The representatives of the European Commission will also be present, and we want to bring to the debate to find solutions, because the recognition of professional qualifications in the European Union is very strict, and it cannot be done anyway, so we must find the levers through which the eventual flow of qualified medical personnel from countries other than the European Union, to be possible, but under some regulated conditions that can be applied.
Including procedures for equivalency, or completion of studies in the member countries of the European Union, because Romania must adopt the same model as the other states, the recognition of the professional qualification being one of those that were debated and concluded at the time of Romania's accession to the European Union on 1 January 2007."
