If these 1500 doctors resign, they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, the law urgently needs to be changed

About 1500 doctors are in real danger of being foreclosed by the hospital or health center if they resign before the expiration of their employment contract after completing their specialization. This is the result of the latest survey conducted among doctors with valid contractual obligations after specialization, carried out from July to September this year by the Croatian Association of Hospital Doctors (HUBOL) and the Initiative of Young Doctors of Croatia (IMLH).

It is estimated that there are approximately six thousand doctors in Croatia with some form of contractual obligation to work for an employer. According to the Digital Atlas of the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK), in November 2023, there were 3271 residents (all of whom have contractual obligations) and about 2700 specialists with contractual obligations. On average, 455 doctors completed their specialization annually from 2018 to 2022, bound by contracts to work for their employer for the next five years. Considering that two-thirds of all doctors are women, many of whom take maternity leave (which they must work off additionally), this extends the mandatory work period.

The most shocking result of this survey is that 26 percent of all doctors with contractual obligations have a personal promissory note or a solemnized contract, or both. Based on these documents, the employer can collect debts extrajudicially at any time, meaning they can foreclose on the doctor’s money or the apartment in which the doctor lives. The worst situation is in general hospitals and health centers, where every third doctor with a contractual obligation is at risk of foreclosure. These institutions have much more frequently conditioned candidates for specialization to sign foreclosure documents than clinical hospital centers or clinical hospitals, say the doctors’ associations, calling for urgent resolution of the problem.

Slavery Contracts

– Intensive meetings are being held at MIZ to address the issue of slavery contracts. We expect that the proposal for amendments to the Health Care Act will be put into procedure around December 15. It is imperative that the legal amendments go through an urgent procedure in the Parliament. Only in this way can this law be passed in time, so that the amendments come into force in February or March next year. At HUBOL, we expect that the directors of health institutions will prepare annexes to contracts immediately upon the amendments coming into force and sign them with their employees as soon as possible. We are in the 21st century, and it is time for doctors to stop being slaves and become workers with the same rights as any other worker in Croatia, emphasizes Ivana Šmit, president of HUBOL.

The HUBOL and IMLH survey shows that more than five thousand doctors are obligated to repay gross salaries, Christmas bonuses, vacation pay, gifts for children, and similar (up to 150 thousand euros), or to repay a multiple of the budgetary base (up to 33 thousand euros). Doctors bound by these contracts must, if they terminate their employment before the contractual term expires, repay the earned and worked gross salaries, Christmas bonuses, vacation pay, and similar to the employer, or the amount based on the multiple of the budgetary base. Doctors note that the Constitutional Court has ruled that contractual obligations to repay gross salaries are unconstitutional, as they deprive doctors of their constitutional right to earnings.

HUBOL and IMLH, as well as all umbrella medical organizations, accept the obligation of doctors to pay the actual costs of specialization in the event of termination of employment before the expiration of the contractual obligation. The actual and undisputed costs of specialization range from 6 to 7 thousand euros and include the costs of postgraduate studies, final and specialist exams, the main mentor and commentator, as well as the cost of the booklet and work diary for specialist training.