Burnout impacts Romanian doctors, with 36% of them in a state of high or very high burnout and those most at risk being women and young doctors, while 58% say they are physically exhausted, the largest survey made by the College of Physicians in Romania found.
Most at risk of burnout include doctors working in emergency services, oncologists, hemato-oncology, paediatricians and surgeons. Lack of resources, difficult relationships with patients and colleagues, excessive bureaucracy and lack of social recognition are also factors that contribute to doctors burning out.
“Burnout syndrome is a fairly widespread problem in medicine in Romania. The very high workload, many tasks, time pressure, emotional load and difficult decisions that must be made immediately”, Daniel Coriu, the president of the College of Physicians said, noting that burnout has a direct consequence on the treatment of patients.
Another issue is the low number of doctors in the country, compared to the EU average with 55,622 doctors or 2.9 per 1,000 inhabitants, while the EU average lies at 3-3.5.
Also problematic is the distribution of doctors, which is centred around university areas.
Bucharest has seven doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, while Dolj, Timiş, Cluj, and Iasi have between four and six per the same number of inhabitants. However, 24 counties only have one or two doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, while two counties – Ilfov and Călăraşi – have less than one.
Besides, while most doctors are women (70%) and on the younger side (68% of doctors are between 28 and 55 years old), they are also have the highest risk of burnout. Among the young doctors surveyed, 47% said they have a high and very high level of burnout.
Risk of brain drain
The President of the College of Physicians is also concerned about doctors wanting to leave Romania to work elsewhere as 31.5% of men and 25.9% answered yes when asked whether they intended to leave Romania, the survey found.
The risk of brain drain appears most worrying among young doctors, as 57.5% of doctors below 35 expressed their intention to leave their position.
Salaries are no longer a problem, but those under 35 are particularly dissatisfied with the working conditions and the poor health infrastructure. Also, young people are looking for professional training or research opportunities and feel this is impossible in Romania.
Those aged 36-49 are also thinking about opportunities for their children.
According to the survey, the drive to emigrate fades away as the respondents’ age increases.
The survey was conducted from 12 February to 5 March. A total of 8,121 doctors from across the country responded to the online survey.
(Cătălina Mihai | EURACTIV.ro)
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