Doctors working in the regions may be allowed to work after the age of 65.
New steps are planned to eliminate the shortage of doctors in the regions. According to the proposals under discussion, both the softening of residency requirements for certain specialties and the possibility for doctors who have reached retirement age to continue their activities are being considered.
Modern.az reports that this was stated by Ahliman Amiraslanov, chairman of the Health Committee of the Milli Majlis, at today's meeting of the committee.
He stated that extensive discussions have been held on this issue to date, and meetings have been held in various formats with relevant institutions. According to him, the steps taken in this direction will yield results in the near future.
Ahliman Amiraslanov noted that doctors who graduate from medical university in a number of specialties will be able to work in the regions after receiving further training at the Institute for Advanced Medical Studies for a certain period without undergoing residency:
"Thus, we will be able to send our doctors in several specialties to the periphery, to the regions, to fill the existing gaps there."
The committee chairman stated that one of the main issues preventing the elimination of the shortage of doctors in the regions is the removal of specialists who have reached the age of 65 from medical activity. According to him, this issue is also currently being considered.
"These doctors will be allowed to work longer in the regions, even after the age of 65, and serious work is being done in this direction. We are in constant contact with both the Ministry of Health, TABIB, and the higher education institutions that train these specialists," Amiraslanov emphasized.
He added that there is no overall shortage of doctors in Azerbaijan. The problem is more related to the distribution of personnel.
"There is no shortage of doctors in our country according to the number of doctors per 100,000 population. However, unfortunately, the vast majority of them are concentrated in large cities. In the regions, there are serious vacancies in many specialties. For this reason, we must accelerate the measures taken," the committee chairman noted.
