The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, declared on Monday that more than 4,000 family doctors out of the 11,000 practicing at the national level will retire in the next five years and specified that to replace them, the approach to increase the allocated places will be continued of universities for family medicine at least 800 every year.

„You know very well that of the approximately 11,000 family doctors who are in Romania in the next 5 years, it is possible that at least 4,000 of them will retire. This is the age and then we must find a solution to replace this professional body with young doctors and this is only possible together with the universities of medicine and pharmacy which were not designed to train so many family doctors. Last year we had a very serious discussion for the first time and we managed to increase the number of places in family medicine. We will continue this effort so that every year we have at least 800 family medicine graduates as well as specialist doctors so that they can replace colleagues who will retire,” said Rafila at the official opening of the 2nd Edition of the International Summer School of Resident Doctors and Young Specialists in Family Medicine.

According to the minister, in Romania there are several hundreds of localities that do not have family doctors.

In his opinion, people’s trust in the health system very often depends on family doctors.

Alexandru Rafila expressed his hope that by the end of the year, the National Public Procurement Agency will complete the purchase of equipment for family doctors, so that many offices will have ultrasound, electrocardiograph, spirometer.

For his part, the rector of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Viorel Jinga, declared that the higher education institution he leads was the only one in the country that allocated 20% of places to family medicine.

Referring to the International Summer School of Resident Doctors and Young Specialists in Family Medicine, the UMF rector said that this large-scale event is beneficial to medicine as a whole and represents an ambitious project.

Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, the Joint Education and Health Foundation and the AMAS University Society of Family Medicine Foundation are organizing the second edition of the International Summer School of Resident Doctors and Young Specialists in Family Medicine, which takes place in Bucharest, between September 2-7, 2024.

AGERPRES