Poland hospitals face doctors shortage

[Jaga]

It is because Polish doctors prefer to work abroad... besides, their working hours are going to be shorter:


www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/12/28/poland_hospitals_face_doctors_shortage/5188/

WARSAW, Poland, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A pending European Union law to limit working hours of physicians is likely to further aggravate a lack of doctors practicing at hospitals in Poland.

The situation in Polish state-run hospitals and clinics is expected to worsen on Tuesday, when the law ordering physicians to work no more than 48 hours a week goes into effect, Polish Radio said Friday.

The new law, worked out under an EU directive, could leave hospitals across Poland in January without a sufficient number of doctors to care for patients around the clock, the report said.

[joyce]

I am sorry to read this-for the people need doctors to care for them. But yet on the other hand, I can understand the need to regulate the hours doctors spend practicing medicine. Too many hours can drain the doctor-causing him/her to make stupid mistakes in someone's health care.

Here in the states, something should be done to regulate the hours the doctors work here. Some drs are so dedicated that they forget to go home at night. I have an Oncologist that works long hours after 5 pm. He has made phone calls to the house after 8 pm. I would think he would have gone home to his family.

In my neck of the woods, there are no doctor shortages. But the shortages are in the nursing field, especially in the hospitals. I don't know why, but I can almost bet it has something to do with the pay scales. Open the newspaper to the classified section, and one can read the many want ads for skilled nurses, techs, etc. It takes someone special to be a dedicated nurse.

[pieter]

Jaga,

Polish docters and nurses should get a higher wage, and the doctors and Nurses who work in the Netherlands,
Great-Britain, Ireland, Germany and the USA should be given a reason to return to Poland.

The Braindrain is not a good thing for Poland.

Pieter