The College of Medical Physicists in Romania has revealed eight cases of persons without proper training who acted as medical physicists in the health system, although they are mechanical engineers, bio-engineers or chemists.
They lacked proper training in physics but worked illegally in hospitals and clinics in Bucharest and in the country, digi24.ro informs.
Among the duties and responsibilities of the medical physicist are the calculation of the radiation dose administered to the cancer patient, the individual preparation of the treatment plan and the calibration of quality of the radiotherapy equipment.
“At the College of Medical Physicists 3-4 people have applied for membership, as members, to mislead the competent authorities, but from our statistics we have identified eight people practicing the profession physicist without medical physics training, although the law clearly explains the procedures for recognizing a diploma. If it is obtained in a different field than medical physics, they did not follow the steps and have obtained accreditation either with the aid of employees of public institutions in which they waved their papers to various employers, and they practice the profession of a medical physicist, although they are mechanical engineers, chemists, engineers or bioengineers,” said Marin Bodale, vice-president of the College of Physicists in Romania, for Digi24 TV private broadcaster. He drew the attention that there are even people from abroad who came and for whom “we do not have a clear recognition from the state authorities in which it says – yes, they can practice this profession or not.”
At least seven of the eight medical physicists do not have the proper training, have been identified by the College of Physicists in Romania, but currently practice this profession, Marin Bodale said.
As procedure, the accreditation for medical physicist jobs should be confirmed by the Health Ministry, but they have escalated this recognition of the diploma, said Marin Bodale. They had to go to the National Center for Equivalence of Diplomas and Recognition within the Ministry of National Education, but did not go through this diploma recognition procedure.