Moldova's health care system diagnosed with brain drain

Moldova's health care system is experiencing a serious deficit of skilled workers, as doctors, nurses as well as medical school graduates prefer to emigrate to richer countries than work for miserable salaries in Moldova. At the same time, the doctors who choose to remain are forced to spend more time on bureaucratic procedures to the patients' determent. These and other problems of the public health care system were highlighted in the 2010 Activity Report of the Health Ministry, presented on Friday by Minister Andrei Usatii, Info-Prim Neo reports. Minister Usatii says the system needs at least 2,000 more doctors and nurses to function well. In 2010, over 500 young specialists left the system for higher paying jobs. Andrei Usatii thinks the main causes of this situation are the underpayment and the reluctance of many medical establishments to employ young, less experienced workers. Also, Andrei Usatii says that the allowances granted by the state to the medical professionals who go to work to rural areas are too low to motivate them to take such jobs on a full-time basis. In order to attract more skilled workers, the governments needs not only to pay higher wages but also replace the medical equipment which is very old, thinks the minister. The report also showed that paperwork and other bureaucratic procedures took over 70% of the doctors' time, with only 30% left for the patients.