«Are you going to leave Poland and work as a doctor abroad?» – this question was asked to residents for 10 days by the largest social networking site of doctors, www.konsylium24.pl, and the survey results confirmed the fears that if the residents’ hunger strike would not change anything in the Polish health care, soon there would be no one to treat us.
On 11-18 October 2017, www.konsylium24.pl, the largest social networking site dedicated to Polish doctors, asked 855 randomly selected users whether they intended to emigrate to work, of course in their profession, abroad. A survey lasting almost 10 days showed that one-third of young doctors are thinking about leaving Poland. Konsylium24 asked doctors the same question two years ago. The results of the survey show that the emigration trend has intensified over the past three years.
One in ten surveyed doctors is firmly determined to leave, according to the latest survey. To the question: “Are you going to leave Poland and work as a doctor abroad?” 10 percent of doctors said “definitely yes” (in the last 2015 survey, 10 percent also said they wanted to emigrate, and 28 percent of doctors said “rather yes.” In the last survey, 19 percent said rather yes. of doctors definitely do not want to emigrate – 33 percent.
OECD data (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) shows that Poland ranks last in Europe in the number of doctors per 2,2 inhabitants (XNUMX doctors).
Compared to the survey from two years ago, it can be seen that the percentage of doctors who do not consider leaving Poland at all has decreased (from 52 to 43 percent), but the number of those who plan to emigrate has increased significantly (by almost 10 percent) (29 to 38 percent).
Most young doctors are overworked because they work in several places at the same time, often several dozen hours in a row. This is not the result of sick ambition or workaholism, but simply a necessity – the remuneration of resident doctors is so low that they have to work several jobs. This situation has not changed for years – although the national average is growing, the earnings of young doctors have not changed. Doctors’ salaries during their residency are around 75 percent of the national average. (Remuneration of resident doctors for the first two years of specialization is PLN 2 thousand 576 “on hand”, and after two years, PLN 2 thousand 776 “on hand”.
Lower salaries are received by resident doctors in other medical fields. In their case, the salary for the first two years is PLN 3170 gross (PLN 2275 net) and after two years it increases to PLN 3458 gross (PLN 2475 net).
This is several times less than doctors in other European countries receive. The result is not only frustration and poorer quality of life for doctors, but also less opportunity to expand their professional qualifications – residents waste the time they could devote to education on earning extra money.
The protest of the Alliance of Residents of the District Trade Union of Doctors is underway. He is supported not only by senior doctors, but also by associations of all medical professions in Poland (including nurses, nurses and paramedics). Konstanty Radziwiłł, the Minister of Health, announces today an increase in health expenditure on the health service. Residents are demanding it be 6,8 percent of GDP.