The national medical qualification
exam in Romania will take place in early December this year while the one next
year has been scheduled for November. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has
promulgated the legislative amendments urgently endorsed by Parliament.
The decision-making Chamber of
Deputies has endorsed this necessary law with a landslide majority but several
amendments have been made to the initial law adopted by the Senate. Under the
aforementioned law, the methodology for the national medical qualification exam
is to be approved by the Health Ministry in Romania.
Amendments to the initial law
endorsed by the Senate have eliminated the obligation for this exam to be taken
in three years since graduation. Under the new law, candidates who passed the
residency exam but failed the specialty exam can still find employment in medical
units currently facing shortage of personnel. Here is Liberal MP Antoneta
Ionita with more on the new legislation.
Antoneta Ionita: There was a
team work, we worked on the text and found solutions, and major amendments have
been brought to the text passed by the Senate; one of these being that the
total number of graduates must at least equal the number of graduates from the
specialized faculties of General Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery.
The Social Democrats have asked
that in the future the methodology must also be endorsed by the Education
Minister. Here is Social Democratic MP Camelia Gavrila
Camelia Gavrila: The Social
Democratic MPs have initiated and supported this extremely important initiative
for the present generation trying to settle a political crisis in 2019. We
believe that the Ministry of Education must get involved in the national
medical qualification exam, which is a form of postgraduate training.
Initially scheduled for November 17th,
the national medical qualification exam has been re-scheduled for December 8th,
because the Education Ministry doesn’t have a minister to sign the three
decrees under which the exam is unfolding.
The new legislative amendments come
against the backdrop of the present political crisis, after the cabinet led by
Social-Democrat Viorica Dancila had been sacked through a no-confidence vote on
October 10th and a new cabinet is to come to power under the guidance
of Liberal Ludovic Orban provided it musters Parliament support. Romania is presently
facing a shortage of doctors, who preferred to leave the country for a better
pay abroad.