RESPONSE BY THE MEDICAL CHAMBER OF MONTENEGRO TO INACCURATE AND INCOMPLETE CLAIMS PUBLISHED IN THE MEDIA

Following an interview with Dr Vešović from Vršac, who is working at Bar General Hospital under a temporary licence to practise, in which a number of inaccurate and incomplete claims were made about doctors' salaries in Montenegro, the Medical Chamber of Montenegro is addressing the public to ensure that complete and truthful information is provided.

At the outset, the Medical Chamber of Montenegro wishes to emphasise that all doctors, regardless of where they come from, are welcome in Montenegro if they use their knowledge and work to support colleagues in the public healthcare sector, who face exceptionally heavy workloads, and thereby contribute to Montenegro's healthcare system as a whole. This certainly includes Dr Vešović, who works as a gynaecologist at Bar General Hospital under a temporary licence. As she herself stated, she spent her professional career in Vršac and moved to Bar for personal reasons shortly before retirement, describing it as a pleasant place to live.

Without disputing any doctor's right to express an opinion publicly, the Medical Chamber considers it reasonable to ask what data Dr Vešović relied on when informing the public about Montenegrin doctors' salaries. When discussing the earnings of people employed in the public healthcare system, the public must be given accurate, complete and verifiable information.

Such information should primarily be provided by doctors working in Montenegro's healthcare system and by the Medical Chamber as their professional organisation. This is precisely why the interview caused considerable discontent among Montenegrin doctors, particularly because the information about their salaries does not reflect the actual situation.

It remains unclear whether these claims resulted from Dr Vešović being insufficiently informed or, possibly, from different financial terms in her employment contract. Inaccurate and incomplete information presented in this way serves neither doctors nor Montenegro's healthcare system. Montenegrin doctors working in public healthcare face exceptionally heavy workloads and often perform the duties of as many as three formally established posts.

Dr Vešović is right if she cited EUR 2,000 to EUR 2,500 as the level at which doctors' basic salaries should be set, or up to EUR 4,500 when on-call duties and overtime are included. The Medical Chamber believes there are justified grounds for valuing doctors' work substantially more highly. However, if those figures were presented as doctors' current salaries in Montenegro, that claim is incorrect. According to the data available to the Medical Chamber of Montenegro, the basic salary of a doctor is EUR 1,200, that of a specialist is EUR 1,480, and that of a subspecialist is EUR 1,700.

The citizens of Montenegro have the right to truthful and complete information about the salaries of doctors, politicians, judges and all other people whose earnings are financed from the state budget, that is, with the money of Montenegro's citizens.

The Medical Chamber of Montenegro wishes to be entirely clear: doctors will not accept having to secure a decent living for themselves and their families by exhausting themselves through ever-increasing on-call duties, overtime and additional work. An income that allows a dignified life must not depend on how long a doctor can work beyond normal working hours. A doctor's basic salary must, in itself, reflect the years of education, expertise, complexity of the work and enormous responsibility assumed every day for patients' health and lives.

Behind every specialist doctor are years of medical studies, internship, specialist training and, for many, subspecialist training, as well as continuing professional development. Behind every signature and every professional decision lies considerable professional and legal responsibility, but above all responsibility for patients' lives and health.

Doctors' salaries must therefore be determined by the value of their regular work, their knowledge and expertise, and the responsibility they assume every day, rather than by the number of on-call duties and hours they are physically capable of spending at work.

A decent basic salary is not a privilege for doctors. It is an investment in the stability of the healthcare system and the safety of every citizen who will, at some point, depend on a doctor's knowledge, expertise and judgement. A country that looks after its doctors protects one of its most important resources.

The Medical Chamber of Montenegro will therefore not accept our doctors' knowledge, years of education and enormous responsibility being valued according to the number of on-call duties they perform. Instead, it demands a salary worthy of a person who protects citizens' health and lives.