Oncology in a staff crisis

This was one of the topics that sounded strong during Thursday's Oncology 2022 conference, where experts reviewed the most important systemic and clinical issues faced by oncologists, oncology patients and the entire system.

Prof. Piotr Rutkowski (Department of Tumors of Soft Tissues, Bones and Melanomas, National Institute of Oncology-National Research Institute in Warsaw), precisely in the context of little interest of young doctors in undertaking specializations related to oncology. This is not a problem of the last recruitment (spring recruitment is smaller than the autumn recruitment), but has been going on for at least several years, despite the fact that encouraging doctors to take up oncological specializations is included in the National Oncology Strategy.

The topic was and is the subject of expert analyzes, the conclusions are no secret: oncology specializations are closely related to the public health care system, and admittedly the number of jobs grows - with the aging of the society and an increasing number of cancer patients - but when deciding to career path, many doctors see it as a limitation. However, this is not the first, nor the most important reason - the doctors themselves talk about the enormous psychological burden associated with the need to provide patients with difficult messages about treatment opportunities - and this is everyday reality, firstly due to the weakness of prophylaxis, which results in the disclosure of neoplastic diseases in advanced stages, and secondly, the availability of modern treatment methods is still lower than in most highly developed countries. Besides, which is also pointed out by doctors, even cures in cancers - especially childhood cancers - are usually associated with huge health losses for the patient.

Undoubtedly, the problem of staff shortages requires urgent intervention - but there are no simple solutions. Financial incentives are not and will not be sufficient, without systemic changes - which, as emphasized by Dr. Janusz Meder, president of the Polish Oncology Union, is awaiting the entire community, both medical workers and patients - such as the entry into force of the National Oncology Network , and noticeable improvements in access to treatment and its organization, it will be difficult to encourage young physicians to choose specialties that are perceived as "difficult and burdensome".

As reported on Twitter by drug. Jakub Kosikowski, residencies were filled in the spring recruitment:

oncological surgery - 1

hematology - 7

palliative medicine - 0

pediatric oncology and hematology - 4

clinical oncology - 10

pathomorphology - 6

radiation therapy - 3

A total of 364 places were prepared in the spring proceedings for oncology specializations:

oncological surgery - 32,

hematology - 55,

palliative medicine - 18,

pediatric oncology and hematology - 19,

clinical oncology - 103,

pathomorphology - 72,

oncological radiotherapy - 65.