April 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 4 |
 Participants in this educational session in a chilly room in Cahul take careful notes as they learn from the American FPs. |
Airlift delivers aid and education as Moldova overcomes odds
The next time you find yourself grousing about Medicare red tape and insurance company hassles, think about the plight of physicians in Moldova. This former Soviet republic was the site of the 10th Physicians With Heart humanitarian airlift Feb. 18 - 25, a project the Academy helped sponsor.
Imagine a system in which physicians earn $30 - $50 a month. Granted, their cost of living is lower than it would be in the United States, but Moldovan physicians often give up medicine or supplement their medical incomes with part-time work as translators, waiters and musicians.
Physicians With Heart delegates learned that Moldova is revamping a health care system left over from the Soviet era, a system top-heavy with specialists.
According to Dr. Victor Puiu, director of the regional clinics in the Botanica District of Moldova, the health care budget for his country's state-run system caps yearly health care expenditures at $10 per person. And 20 percent of that amount -- just $2 -- is allocated for primary care.
Dr. Grigore Bivol, chair of the family medicine department at the State Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Chisinau, spelled out some of the roadblocks family practice proponents face, including low physician salaries, lack of equipment, supply shortages, the disdain of other specialists, and the dearth of educational opportunities.
Despite the barriers, Daniel Ostergaard, M.D., AAFP vice president for international and interprofessional activities, expressed optimism when he spoke at family practice symposia. "It is exciting to hear the ambitious plans for the implementation of family practice in Moldova," he said. "I think Moldova will serve as a model for other former Soviet republic countries."
 Children at the Sarata Galbena orphanage in Chisinau sport smiles after entertaining their American guests with Romanian songs. |
Sandwiched in between the medical education sessions were team visits to clinics that had received a portion of the record-setting $15 million worth (U.S. wholesale value) of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies delivered to the country before the delegation arrived.
On-site project partners included physicians and administrators from Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Va. The EVMS project, funded by the American International Health Alliance, involves long-term family practice development in Moldova and will open its second family practice clinic there next fall.
Each Physicians With Heart airlift includes a children's project. This year, team members left a portion of their hearts with nearly 140 children in the Sarata Galbena orphanage and with 22 youngsters in a foster home on the outskirts of Chisinau. Basic necessities as well as toys, treats and the orphanage's first television set were unloaded to choruses of "mult'umesc" -- "thank you" in Romanian.
Go to http://www.aafp.org/airlift/ to see photos and to read more about this and other Physicians With Heart projects. The airlifts are cosponsored by the Academy, the AAFP Foundation and Heart to Heart International, a humanitarian aid organization based in Olathe, Kan.
FP Report is published by the
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Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.