Lithuania has reached a dangerous point: there is already a tragic shortage of these doctors

According to Professor Vytautas Kasiulevičius, vice dean of the Vilnius University Medical Faculty, there should be about 2,000. 200.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, according to data provided by medical institutions in June this year, there is a shortage of 79 family doctors, and the report of specialists is not filled. On the contrary, it is decreasing.

For example, at least 6 family doctors could now be admitted to the Center’s polyclinic.

“Of the 93 districts, eight of our doctors are currently on paternity leave and two districts have been left without doctors,” Džiuginta Morkūnaitė, administrator of the Center’s Polyclinic, told LNK News.

In addition, the institution has doctors of respectable age. Four professionals already want to terminate the employment contract. This lack of specialists has a strong impact on the work team.

Mantė Barzdenytė, a family doctor at the center’s polyclinic, said the increased workload really felt: “Just sign up for us when you find vacancies and our own patients will no longer find time to access. We can no longer carry out, for example, preventive programs. “

Despite burdens and staff shortages, the private sector is exerting even greater strains.

“Doctors are migrating all the time. It is not a secret, and I have received many offers to try elsewhere, but everyone can choose who wants to work where, ”Dr. M. Barzdenytė opened.

When asked who kept her in the Center’s outpatient clinic, the family doctor replied: “Colleagues, work environment.”

A report from the Government’s Center for Strategic Analysis indicates that it was in 2020 when the shortage of general practitioners and GPs was greatest. The most common reasons for this are: increased workload due to the COVID-19 pandemic, specialized illnesses, and retirement.

The GP shortage is projected to increase only over the next 10 years or so.

“The loads are enormous, the people are burned. I don’t think it’s the essence of the number, but the very concept of what GPs should do. Because at this moment they are forced to be the writers of letters, notes, certificates, all kinds of referrals, referrals, “said Auristida Gerliakienė, president of the Board of the Lithuanian Medical Movement.

According to the interlocutor, family doctors are not actually doing clinical work now. And the loads are such that patients are treated with a conveyor belt.

“We try to turn around, but sometimes we don’t guess. People sometimes complain that the call does not go out or that the queues are too long to register. But we can no longer attend them physically, because there are between 50 and 60 people a day. It is necessary to imagine the great burden that it is, “explained Dr. M. Barzdenytė.

The main reasons for the lack of family doctors are both the migration of specialists and the supply of education. Nor is the departure of specialists to other sectors ruled out.

V. Kasiulevičius noted: “The shortage of family doctors is chronic throughout Europe. It is still quite a challenging profession. It is full of challenges. “

It takes 9 years to train a family doctor.

“We have trained 327 family doctors in a decade. There are really many people who choose this program, now they are studying in the 116 family medicine program, that’s a lot. 40 people joined this year, “said V. Kasiulevičius.

There are still participants. However, about 10 percent. young professionals are leaving.

“If you look at what is west of Lithuania, the pay gap is really dramatic,” commented the professor.

Most often they go to Western Europe: Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavian countries. Abroad, the salary can be up to five times higher.

However, it is currently possible to win in Lithuania as well.

“The salary of a young family doctor will depend to a large extent on the institution in which he plans to work. But actually in the regions we sometimes see an advertisement offering 3,000 euros,” said Kamilė Marcinkevičiūtė, president of the Council of Residents of the VU School of Medicine.

Jurgita Sejonienė, a member of the Seimas Health Affairs Committee, believes that the distribution of family doctors is very uneven: “In big cities, there are enough family doctors. And on the periphery, the disadvantage in the districts is really significant.

Second, it should be noted that, especially in the neighborhoods, the majority of GPs are older. The problem is scheduled in advance to only get worse. “

It is not just wages or burdens that discourage the profession of family physician. Public attitudes also have a strong influence.

“It is like a kind of doctor who writes references, issues disability to work and fills other papers. It is as if the exaltation of all other specialists and the reduction of the role of the family doctor prevail in society, ”noted K. Marcinkevičiūtė.

“It is not the number of family doctors per se that needs to be increased, but the number of people who help: assistants, nurses. There is a tragic shortage of nurses, – said A. Gerliakienė, adding:” There are no burdens of regulated work for family doctors or specialists and it is not clear how many people they have to attend to. “

Lucía, who works as a nurse in the center’s polyclinic, says that part of the work is now being done in vain: “Non-medical problems, such as registration, talking to people, calls, take time, like, I would say, empty weather.”

According to the Ministry of Health, it is planned to determine the scope of services of a family medical team by the end of 2021. This will create the legal preconditions for a clearer redistribution of the functions of the members of the GP team.