NEWS UPDATE
HEALTH AND SOCIAL WELFARE
Specialist training board set up
Significant changes are being made to the system of specialist medical training in order to direct medical graduates to those areas of expertise where Kosovo’s needs are greatest.
A Central Board will be established by the Department of Health and Social Welfare under Administrative Instruction 17/2000, which was promulgated last week. The board will decide each year the number of places to be allocated for training in each specialty, based on the needs of the Health Service. The availability of training places will be advertised in the media and candidates will be selected on merit only. Normally applicants will have to have completed two years practice in Family Health medicine in order to be accepted for any further specialisation, but other prior experience may be accepted.
Generally residents who started their training before 1 July 1999 will be allowed to continue their original programme. However, those who started in the last six months of 1999 will be personally interviewed by the Central Board, and those who started after 1 January 2000 will have to stop training and make fresh applications.
The Central Board will specify the training requirements for each specialty, designate where the specialist training is to take place, and how assessments and exams are to be organised. Specialist trainees will be paid a health service salary, but will be obliged to work full-time for five years in Kosovo’s health service after successful completion of their training, or repay their full trainee salary. Posts allocated for training will be kept for this purpose, and the newly-qualified specialists will have to apply for jobs where there are vacancies.
The new administrative instruction covers medical, dental and pharmaceutical specialties in Kosovo