Why is that? And how many hours do these record-holders among physicians work each month? These were among the questions we posed to the Ministry of Public Administration. We discovered that the system allows this situation because doctors are in short supply.

“Publishing just the high salaries of doctors, but not the number of hours worked” is misleading. This was a common complaint of the Fides labor union, so the Ministry conducted an analysis of these salaries, which show amounts as high as 13,000 euros per month. The analysis reveals that in the period between December 2017 and April 2018, the same group of people was on the list of the top-1000 highest paid individuals. This wasn’t a small group, but rather 468 specific doctors, who made the list five months in a row. They include the heads of hospitals and medical centers.

The top five doctors on the list work more than 250 hours a month – the highest-paid doctor worked 406 hours. This means that they spent more than half a month – or 17 hours a day -- on the job.

Is this even possible? And more importantly, is it safe for the patients? In place of an answer, here is a response by Health Minister Samo Fakin when asked why he never worked in the public sector during the day and the private sector in the afternoon: “We had a lot of work in the morning, so I couldn’t work on something else in the afternoon.”

It's true that doctors are in short supply. But why are the same 468 repeatedly on the list? Because overtime is good money, especially since the most recent strike. Until then, the rules set the busyness of each medical facility as a scheduling criterion. During on-call hours, the overtime for night, holiday, and Sunday work was half of the present amount.

Based on Fides’ request, the rules were phased out in the wake of last year’s strike-ending agreement; superiors can now approve much better paid overtime instead of on-call overtime. Also, extras earned during overtime are paid in full, rather than limited as had been the case.