New regulations may ban working at several hospitals for doctors
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, November 6
The Chairman of the Committee on Health Care and Social Issues of the Parliament, Akaki Zoidze, believes that if doctors work at several medical institutions at the same time, this might bring negative results for patients.
For this purpose, Zoidze believes that a special regulation has to be included in the new healthcare draft law that would prevent doctors from working at several places.
“When a doctor works at six clinics at the same time and makes around 30 operations a day, this is often followed by negative results for the patients. We should prevent such practices,” Zoidze stated at Parliament.
However, the Chair of the Committee explained later that if doctors will not be allowed to work at several clinics, their salaries should be increased.
“Doctors should have decent salaries at the places where they work. Moreover, we do not need so many medical institutions,” he added.
The head of the Health Department of the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs, Marina Darakhvelidze, commented on the statement of Zoidze and underlined that currently, the ministry is not working on a regulation which would prohibit doctors from working at several places.
“If such a proposal comes from the legislative body, we will consider its benefits and risk factors and make a decision accordingly,” she stated.
Medical specialists and doctors advise legislators to solve the problem by raising salaries and qualification of the doctors.
The doctors explain that it is very hard for them to work at several hospitals, adding they do this to improve their financial conditions.
“Working at several places is very hard for every doctor but we do it because we do not have proper salaries,” Nino Sharashenidze, an onco-hematologist stated.
Gocha Ingorokva, head of the Ingorokva University Clinic, believes that there is a lack of qualified doctors in the country, adding this is one of the main reasons that doctors are working at several places.
“The number of hospitals is large, while the number of qualified doctors is low,” he added.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) says one of the ways out is to reduce the number of medical institutions. For this reason, new criteria will be introduced to the state-led Universal Insurance Program, which implies selective contracting.
This means that the state will fund only such medical institutions that meet proper standards and have qualified staff.
