Physicians in Romania earn as much as an unskilled worker. The price the Romanian state pays to those whose work saves lives

Nurses, sisters and resident medical doctors earn every month as much as an unskilled worker. Even though they save thousands of lives and they live their whole lives as a race against the clock.

A medical school student makes six years of college and starts residency afterwards. Early in their career, the state pays them a salary of RON 1000. Those who look at the medical system from the outside, probably imagine that a specialist medical doctor with years long experience would have a salary worth the work he/she is performing. They could not be more wrong!. The state pays a specialist physician an amount ranging between RON 2,500 and 3,000.

Nurses are paid every month a wage ranging from RON 1000 to 1500. The stretchers and the sisters are paid RON 600 a month.

The last increase in wages in healthcare was in 2010. Since then, physicians have not seen a penny extra. The state has had a lot more to lose than if they had increased the salaries of medical staff.

Putting through medical school a medical doctor for six years, costs the state around RON 30.000, and his training adds another RON 21.000 in costs.

Twenty thousand physicians have left the country over the last 23 years, disappointed by the healthcare system and the salaries granted. A simple calculation will show that the state has lost over EUR 226 million for the education and training of physicians.