The President of the College of Physicians in Romania, Prof. Univ. Dr. Daniel Coriu, presented the data of a sociological study which shows that 34-36 percent of doctors are experiencing burnout.
Moreover, 58 percent of young doctors want to leave Romania to practice abroad for better working conditions. Additionally, according to the same study, 80 percent of the surveyed doctors fear malpractice.
"Last year we conducted this sociological study, carried out by professionals from the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Bucharest, to which 8,121 doctors responded, so a very good sample. We were interested in 3 directions. The first one, burnout. The burnout rate is 34-36 percent.
We need to understand that burnout is not just fatigue, it can be a disease with depression, suicidal tendencies, and we have colleagues who have actually experienced it. Then there is a direct impact on the quality of medical care. A doctor in burnout no longer has the same ability to relate to the patient," stated Daniel Coriu on Medika TV.
In the same study, doctors were asked about their intention to leave Romania.
"The second direction was the intention of external migration. The entire population of doctors in Romania, regardless of age, social status, well, for women it's 25 percent, for men it's 30 percent. We are talking about people working in Romania, in the medical system, who intend to leave. For those under 35, the intention is 58 percent," Coriu specified.
The third direction targeted malpractice.
"The third direction was the fear of litigious conflict and malpractice. Almost 80 percent have this issue with the fear of malpractice, so they will practice defensive medicine. All these three directions should make us think. (...) We came up with a new malpractice law, but it's blocked.
There is not much interest. If politicians want to leave things as they are... Regarding the intention of external migration, you should know that income is not a problem as it was 10 years ago, salaries have increased, the main reason refers to working conditions," Coriu pointed out.