Study: Estonia is losing 100,000-euro medical doctors to foreign countries
22.02.2012, 16:31According to a study made by the ministry of social affairs, it costs up between 100,00 and 130,000 euros for the state to educate one medical professional, but this money is being lost as the state is doing nothing to keep them from going to work abroad when they graduate.
According to the health authority, more than 2,000 medical professionals have applied for permission to work abroad since 2004. Since there is no statistics available, no-one really knows how many of them are working abroad and some may be working part-time abroad and in Estonia.
Another problem is that no-one in Estonia knows how many medical doctors Estonia itself is lacking. The ministry estimates that there should be an extra 200 medical professionals to ensure that current doctors are not overburdened.
However, since many of the existing medical professionals are working in more than one job, this could mean a loss of income for the existing personnel.
Officials admit that there is very little Estonia can do to block university graduates from going abroad to work.
Says MP Viktor Vassiljev who is also a doctor: “It’s like giving a cancer patient headache pills and hope that it will cure the cancer. Nature does not tolerate vacancies. Medical vacancies in Estonia are being filled by doctors from Ukraine, maybe later we will have medical professionals from Mongolia. It’s not a problem – we are all using computers made in China and do not demand that they should be assembled in Estonia.”
Estonian minister of social affairs Hanno Pevkur says, however, that there is a solution and is urging Estonia hospitals to sign grant agreements with students who are studying medicine in the university ensuring that they will be working in the hospital for some years after they graduate.
Some MP have been suggesting that Estonia should adopt a Norwegian model where university graduates must first work in the country’s remote area or a small hospital before being admitted as a resident.
Others say that the state should reclaim the teaching cost from medical graduates who are leaving abroad and should sign binding funding contracts from the start.