Poland Is Short Doctors As Polish Medics Emigrate For Opportunity
Classified Polnews
Warsaw, Poland March 29, 2007 The Polish Government has officially noticed that the emigration of its people from Poland to Western Europe is adversely affecting its medical system. There's now a serious shortage of doctors and nurses and does not appear that this can be corrected.
Minister of Health Religa
The Polish Ministry of Health estimated that are 4000 empty positions for doctors and another 3500 empty positions for nurses and midwives. See in Polish
Most of the emigrating medical personnel are younger people who have left for a better opportunity. But added to the group are those who have not been admitted to internships to earn specialist designations and who have gone to other countries to get them. And also added to the group are those who are concerned about the futures for their children and their children's educations that they feel are better provided for in a Western European country.
But money is the primary cause of people leaving. For example, it is reported that doctors work in Scandinavia for six months and then take the next six months off and spend it on vacation in a warm climate. Their life is much better than those who struggle in Poland for long hours and low pay.
Even with the higher cost of living in Western Europe, a doctor will generally end up having twice as much money available to spend than he would in Poland. And he would have better living conditions and more opportunity.
The Polish Government wants to stop the drain. One plan being considered by the Polish government was put forward by the head of the President's Chancellery, Gosiewski, who said the people who go through internships in Polish hospitals and gain a specialization should be required to spend a certain amount of time working in their profession in Poland before they be allowed to work in the West.
The medical community's response to his comments were uniformly negative. Those now serving their internships, responded that it is not necessary to get their specialization in Poland. They could simply do it in the West.
And because consultants determine the number of people that can take internships for specialization some people are looking to go West for specialization anyway. It is said that these consultants limit the number of people in order to prevent competition within the medical profession.
Some young doctors who have been rejected for specialist internships have simply gone West and gotten them already.
A former Deputy Minister of Health was questioned in 2004 about the effect of emigration on the Polish medical system. He discounted any negative effect because he saw no reason that there would be mass emigration to the West.
Even today people within the Polish Government and past members of the Ministry of Health see no problem because they say that the Polish doctors and nurses will return to Poland better educated.
That these people return to Poland at all in the future is discounted by emigration experts. Their research concludes that doctors and nurses are not going to take a huge pay cut and work under difficult conditions in Poland when they can do very well in the West.
They say that nurses in particular who have gone West will simply not come back because the nursing profession in Poland is unattractive and with no career opportunities.
And it is not only the doctors and nurses who not expected to come back. The Government has generally said that there will be opportunity in Poland for the young people and then when that opportunity is here, people will come back better trained and will help Poland move forward. But again immigration experts say that most of the people who left Poland are gone. http://www.zw.com.pl/zw2/index.jsp?place=Lead04&&news_cat_id=19&news_id=153293&layout=1&forum_id=29311&page=text">See In Polish
To date, for the most part the doctors and nurses who have left Poland are the younger people. New young doctors and nurses will likely follow. But now it is expected that the older doctors will start to emigrate West.
The Polish Government has not put forth any plans that have done anything to reduce the rate of emigration. If it continues as it is, the Polish medical system will only get worse.
The Minister of Health, Zbigniew Religa, says that there is only one way to stop the emigration. Pay the people more.
