Despite the efforts that have been made, the reformation of the system has not yet started and this will be the main challenge in the next years, Duta said at the conference Mediafax talks about Health Reform.
“Patients are not satisfied with the quality of medical services, while doctors leave Romania. I believe the system’s main weak point will be the lack of medical staff, especially of skilled medical staff,” he highlighted.
According to Duta, medical schools must also undergo reformation, adding that the quality of Romanian medical education is poor.
“Physicians plan to leave Romania from the first years of residency. Reform must examine three aspects: if there are extra financial resources that may be pumped into the system; the ways to a transparent management of financial resources to ensure better services, as well as defining the medical service package that should allow private insurers to operate in good conditions on the local market,” said Duta.
Over the past five years, authorities made real efforts to increase financing for the healthcare sector, he added. The budget of the National Health Insurance House has doubled, but the way funds were distributed was quite inefficient, Duta pointed out.
“We witnessed exaggerated increases of funds allotted to medicine consumption, about 40% went to the pharmaceutical market, which expanded, while we were unable to ensure the same increase for other segments, such as hospitals,” Duta said.