Resident doctors in Romania will receive a special monthly scholarship of some EUR 150 during their residency, according to Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

The monthly scholarship will be “attached to the resident’s salary” and will be paid “from the state budget,” Romanian Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said during a talk show on local television channel B1 TV.

The Coalition of Health Professionals recently announced that a total of 70,000 signatures have already been collected in order to begin a general strike, the main requests being the allocation of six percent of GDP to education in 2014, double salaries for resident doctors and the organization of hospitals to ensure quality services.

Romanain doctors are among the poorly paid in the European Union, which has led to a massive wave of local doctors going abroad to work. Doctors still in their residency years have salaries averaging at some EUR 200. With the new scholarship, the total monthly earnings will be of EUR 350 - or some RON 1575.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)