Come the new year, the exams for resident doctors will change. The Romanian Health minister Ion Bazac announced modifications aimed to include all medical graduates. Resident Doctors Association’s chief executive Dr. Clara Matei gives her opinion on the changes in the Romanian medical residency system.

The main changes of the medical residency exam:

all medical graduates will be able to get a license of free practice after the completion of a 3-years practice, according to the European norms.starting with 2010, the new Residency preparation system will allow all the 2 300 medical graduates in Romania to have a free practice license and prepare in various specialties.the exam: written plus interview. From 2010, the exam will no longer entail a questionnaire, but a written exam and an interview. The interview will serve professional orientation.the number of the residency vacancies will be proportionate with the need for consultants in each area, but the clinic hospitals will have the chance to train them.a new institution will be set up to enable authorities to follow each medical graduate’s professional development.in 2010, the Residency training will be decentralised for all 12 university centres, to reduce the medics' inner migration

Dr. Clara Matei, chief executive of the Resident Doctors Association, welcomed the decentralisation and the interview. She opinionated that it would be very useful for a student to be guided to an area of profession, based on his interests. This would facilitate the resident's clinical integration.

Despite some people not agreeing, she considered it beneficial that nobody would be left outside of the system. Young doctors could be integrated with local GP surgeries. Dr. Matei said that this could encourage inner professional migration, though she could not see it happening without an income increase and prop