High unemployment rate increases doctors' interest in leaving Kosovo

More than 600 doctors in Kosovo are unemployed, of which, according to statistics from the Kosovo Medical Oda, 60 are doctors. Public health institutions, on the other hand, have stated that they need five thousand new doctors to be employed.

Meanwhile, in the Oda of Kosovo Doctors, during 2019, 115 doctors reportedly sought employment documents outside Kosovo.

The largest number of them, based on the Oda of Doctors, have been young doctors who have not been able to hire in Kosovo in their profession, though the health system has a continuing lack of doctors.

Currently, Kosovo does not have an exact number of doctors who have left the country to work in the European Union states or even further away.

During 2018 there have been 110 doctors who have requested certificates for overseas employment in the Oda of Doctors.

So says Plerata Sejdiu, chairman of the Kosovo Medical Oda, who told Radio Free Europe that although there is no known how many doctors have fled abroad, their tendency for employment in European Union countries, especially in Germany, is on the rise.

For 2019 we've had 115 requests for certificates of employment abroad, but if we see how many doctors are following foreign language courses, the number is extreme, and we see that expectations are that there may be an even greater escape. Some 95 percent of doctors who have requested certificates are general doctors and unemployed doctors. So these doctors have been waiting for employment (in Kosovo), which has not happened and have fled abroad”, Sejdiu points out.

According to Sejdiu, although the public health system needs doctors, since there is a lack of them in all medical fields, employment does not occur for many reasons.

I think it's the lack of a more strategic approach and not the budget, as it can be re-budged based on priorities. But, there is no good co-ordination between municipalities and ministries, so even doctors remain unemployed in Kosovo”, Sejdiu said.

On the other hand, Blerim Syla, chairman of the Federation of International Health, said that a specialist specialist in the state of Kosovo costs more than 100,000 euros to be educated, while adding that they later do not have a clear strategy on how they will be employed.

Syla says that only the German state is asking for up to 100,000 doctors a year, so this country, according to him, also has special programs to recruit doctors.

“We have hoped to pass the wage law, where the issue of new, specialised doctors has been addressed, and unfortunately this law has ended in the Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, we have a shortage of doctors in many Kosovo countries. But employment is not happening until the interest of various countries in the world is too great for medical recruiting. In the recent research we did as unions, it has resulted in about 500 doctors leaving Kosovo for better jobs and working conditions. But the exact number of doctors leaving Kosovo is unknown, as not all are reportedly leaving, except those announced at the Oda of Doctors. Meanwhile, as far as nurses are concerned, there are two to three per day that release Kosovo”, says Syla.

Otherwise, a doctor specialist pays 600 euros a month. Health professionals in Kosovo have consistently demanded that wages be increased. Under the new Law of Salaries, it was meant for the specialist doctor to pay about 1,200 euros a month.

The rising salaries were pre-empted to receive in December 2019. Even so, not only health professionals, but about 82,000 people paid from Kosovo's budget, will continue to receive the same salaries, without growth, until March of next year, as the Constitutional Court after the request put forward by the Ombudsman has suspended implementation of the Law.

Meanwhile, Blerim Syla adds that the consequences will be seen in about five years after doctors' departure, the failure of new doctors, and the average age of current doctors in Kosovo, who have already reached 53 years of age, according to him, will bring Kosovo into an uncomfortable state.

The trouble with doctors is staggering. At about 53 years of age, the average age is until job growth is down. I think patients will suffer and the lack of doctors will become a problem, where the patient will have to travel miles to see a doctor in the future, if this trend of” continues, Syla said.

One of the doctors who has already decided to leave Kosovo is Yll Mehmeti, who has spoken about Radio Free Europe.

The star is a radiologist who has decided to work in Germany in his profession, as he says, with better conditions and wages.

To make contact with any country, to be employed as a doctor is very easy, as many doctors are required there. The language alone is a very important factor, which you have to talk about, others are very unrefundable to find work and be settled, especially in Germany, where I have decided to go. There are many factors that have made me create this conviction to leave Kosovo. First and foremost is the prospect that Western countries offer, in this case Germany and normally income are better compared to our country”, Mehmeti said.

In the Ministry of Health, Information Director Faik Hoti says employment is related to the needs of health institutions and the available budget for medical employment.

A problem that has accompanied the employment of doctors in optimum times after their license is that there are institutions that are loaded with certain profiles, while lacking specific profiles, as if doctors' interest is much greater to work in urban areas and much less in rural areas”, Hoti said.

Also, it is also known that for years there has been no harmonisation between the demands of health institutions for doctors and the number of students enrolled in medicine, which means that a resort, allowing greater numbers of students in medicine, has put the next resort to employ them after graduation as doctors”, Hoti said.

Hoti added that despite seeing the need to preserve the medical framework in the country and develop the health sector, the Health Ministry is finalising the Human Resources Strategic Plan in Health and is expected that a number considered unemployed doctors will be engaged in work in 2020.