After the death of the 39-year-old anesthesiologist from Wałbrzych, information appeared that he worked 96 hours a week. The editors of MedTvoiLokony talked about the situation of anaesthesiologists with Jerzy Wyszumirski, the Chairman of the Board of the Main Board of the Anesthesiologists Trade Union.
- Dr Jerzy Wyszumirski: The standard is 250-300 hours of work per month
- Currently, there are 6,8 thousand practitioners in Poland. anesthesiologists. However, almost one in five is over 65
- Young medics are reluctant to pursue this specialization
- You can find more similar stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Tomasz Gdaniec, Medonet: Some time ago, the media heard information about an anesthesiologist from Wałbrzych, who died after working 96 hours in a hospital. Is it an isolated case in this specialization?
Dr Jerzy Wyszumirski: Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case, although it is comforting that it does not concern the majority of anesthesiologists. The average standard is 250-300 hours of work per month. But what is the result of such a large amount of work? It is influenced by various factors, e.g. the desire to earn more money, holidays, i.e. the need to replace, and, of course, the shortage of anesthesiologists in a general sense.
According to the data of the Ministry of Health, over 6,8 thousand people practice anaesthesiology in Poland. doctors. However, almost one in five has already passed the age of 65. Is such a number of medics of this profession sufficient?
It is clear that this number is insufficient, as is well known. However, what would be needed, it would result from the standards of health protection, i.e. whether the state wants to provide citizens with high quality, medium or low quality. As you know, the health care condition in our country is currently bad.
- Take a look: Investigation into the death of a 39-year-old doctor. «Why did he work so much?»
By the way, let’s explain to our readers – what exactly does an anesthesiologist do?
Our specialization in anesthesiology and intensive care, in short, covers both the treatment of the most severe cases in life-threatening conditions, which takes place in intensive care units, as well as anesthesia for all kinds of surgical procedures and diagnostic tests. Of course, it also applies to other activities, such as pain treatment, insertion of vascular ports, etc.
How do you assess: would the situation change, for example by introducing limits on doctors’ working hours per week?
The implementation of this type of proposal seems unrealistic at the moment and would probably destabilize the situation in health care.
And the last question, on a slightly different side, is the anaesthesiological specialization itself popular among medical adepts and young medics?
So far, there has been a fluctuation in the popularity of our specialization among doctors, often depending on the situation in the availability of other specializations, preferential conditions, or, for example, beliefs among young doctors about the prospects of living and working in our country, or in countries with a higher standard , mainly of course, doctors’ salaries.
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