Poland has a shortage of oncologists. “The situation will get worse”

Ms. Julia is just beginning her student adventure at the medical university, but she is already wondering what will happen after it.

– For now, I'm thinking maybe neurology or cardiology – says Julia Kryca, a first-year student at the Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznań.

If nothing changes during six years of studies and then 13 months of internship, this future doctor will not take one of the vacancies in oncology specialization, and there is no shortage of them, at least for now. This is bad news.

– According to data from the Ministry of Health, 67 doctors applied for about 200 places in the specialization in clinical oncology last year. The Supreme Medical Chamber reports that the year and two years before were no better.

– The number of willing students is not changing, and the number of patients will increase, so the situation will deteriorate – predicts Sebastian Goncerz, chairman of the Residents' Agreement of the Polish Physicians' Trade Union.

The number of those who start treatment, as well as patients during and after therapy, is growing. In Poland, more than a million people already need consultations with oncologists.

– New therapeutic options are emerging, which allow for better and better disease control and make it a chronic condition. Fourth and fifth lines of treatment are emerging. This means that oncological patients must be under the care of specialists for an increasingly long time – informs Jarosław Gośliński, editor-in-chief of the Oncological Portal “zwrotnikraka.pl”.

But where to get these specialists?

– Please remember that cancer is the second cause of mortality, and may soon become the first, and in my day, oncology was devoted to two weeks during the entire six-year course of studies – says Dr. hab. n. med. Mateusz Spałek, oncological radiotherapist from the Chief Medical Institute.

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– These elements of oncology should be introduced into the education of every doctor, perhaps then a larger group of these young doctors, medical students, would decide whether they would be interested in this field from the first years of their studies – comments doctor Tomasz Maleszyk, a fifth-year resident of clinical oncology specialization.

This is a very demanding specialization for many reasons.

– Someone who decides to pursue this specialization must understand that for 40 years they will be working exclusively in a hospital, on duty, with hospitalized patients. There is no possibility of choosing a slightly lighter version of their specialization, says Sebastian Goncerz.

– This is a specialization that seems to be a sad specialization, and there is a certain odium of sadness that we are trying to disenchant, but it is a beautiful specialization because we actually help these patients. We are able to cure some patients definitively, and significantly prolong the lives of other patients – says doctor Michał Siwik, a fifth-year resident of clinical oncology specialization at the National Center of Oncology.

– We have 1,116 active clinical oncologists in Poland – informs Jarosław Gośliński. At least half a thousand too few – we hear. There is also a shortage of oncological radiotherapists and pediatric hematologists and oncologists. Looking at how many doctors chose these specializations last year, the situation in these areas is not improving either. 31 doctors chose oncological radiotherapy, and six – pediatric hematology and oncology.

– We currently have about 200 active pediatric oncologists. Our needs, as estimated by our national consultant, Professor Styczyński, are about 300, so we are still short of about 100 – says Dr. Hab. n. med. Ninela Irga-Jaworska from the Department of Pediatrics, Hematology and Oncology of the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk.

– Here, it is a matter of a systemic approach. Not only of setting an increased, so to speak, financial limit for the so-called deficit specialties, because it is in the range of PLN 1,000-1,200 – says Professor Mariusz Bidziński, national consultant in the field of gynecological oncology.

It wasn't an extra penny that pushed Mr. Łukasz Zalewski towards specializing in oncological radiotherapy.

– This is a bull's eye. It is very modern, we use modern irradiation techniques, we use modern immunological drugs – points out doctor Łukasz Zalewski, a fourth-year resident of oncological radiotherapy specialization at the Białystok Oncology Center.

Ms. Julia Grzybek is finishing her specialization in pediatric oncology and hematology. She wants to continue working in this field. – The satisfaction from this job is so great that it outweighs these weaker aspects – says doctor Julia Grzybek, a resident at the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk.

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– Every success here is of great importance, both in everyday work and the final one, I mean curing a child of cancer – says doctor Adrianna Mulewska, a specialist in pediatric oncology and hematology from the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk.

The National Oncology Network is to be launched next year. – I hope that it will slowly change the shape of Polish oncology, in terms of a more optimal way of functioning of this system – comments Mariusz Bidziński.

We asked the Deputy Minister of Health for ideas on how to recruit new specialists.

– We will start talks with the Minister of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Health so that this student education program will be better in terms of oncology – announces Marek Kos, Deputy Minister of Health from the Polish People's Party. – The results, of course, next academic year – he adds.

From this point on, it will take at least several years to educate specialists.