In brief

  • The list of specialties in which doctors are missing goes up from 23 to 25, for the competition of 15 November 2026. Geriatrics and gerontology, that is the medicine of old age, and paediatric psychiatry come in. Nothing leaves the list, and the other 23 specialties are exactly those of the 2024 and 2025 sessions.
  • The list opens a door that is otherwise closed. Government Ordinance no. 18/2009 prohibits residency on a post in clinical hospitals with university clinical wards, in institutes and in clinical medical centres, and for the shortage specialties it can be done precisely there, by way of exception. Whoever takes such a post signs a contract of employment with that hospital before beginning the training.
  • The commitment is long: a number of years equal to the length of the residency, that is between 3 and 7 years. Whoever leaves earlier repays the training costs and the installation allowance, in proportion to the period not worked. Those concerned are the graduates in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy who want a secure post from the first day, plus the university hospitals looking for doctors in these 25 specialties.
Act: Order of the interim minister of health no. 1.461/2026 setting the shortage specialties for which residency on a post is organised in clinical hospitals with university clinical wards, institutes or clinical medical centres in the session of 15 November 2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 819 of 25 September 2026, page 13
In force from: from publication, 25 September 2026, because Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules says that normative acts, with the exception of laws and ordinances, take effect on the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) unless they themselves lay down a later date, and this order does not

Residency on a post, „rezidențiat pe post”, is the form in which the young doctor knows from the first day where they will work: they sign a contract with the hospital before the training begins and stay there for years after finishing it. The order published on 25 September 2026 sets out the 25 specialties in which this formula can be used in university clinical hospitals as well, where the general rule prohibits it. The reasons why these specialties remain understaffed have to do with money too, and a decision of the Constitutional Court published in September 2026 confirmed that doctors’ on-call duty remains paid under the rules of January 2018.

The list has 25 entries: anaesthesia and intensive care, infectious diseases, paediatric cardiology, paediatric surgery, epidemiology, work capacity expertise, paediatric gastroenterology, geriatrics and gerontology, haematology, hygiene, emergency medicine, family medicine, medical microbiology, sports medicine, paediatric nephrology, neonatology, paediatric neurology, medical oncology, paediatric oncology and haematology, paediatric orthopaedics, paediatrics, paediatric pulmonology, paediatric psychiatry, radiotherapy, public health and management.

Against the session of 16 November 2025 there are two entries and not a single departure. Geriatrics and gerontology deal with the illnesses of old age, paediatric psychiatry with the mental health of children. The two ends of life come onto the list in the same year. The order is read together with the 500-lei fee set for the same session, published on the same page of the Official Gazette of Romania and signed on the same day.

A detail that does not catch the eye: out of the 25 specialties, 11 concern children. Nine carry the word paediatric in their name, the tenth is paediatrics, and the eleventh, neonatology, deals with newborn babies. In other words, 44% of the list of specialties in which the State cannot find doctors is made up of the medicine of childhood.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is an exception from two prohibitions. Article 18(2) of Government Ordinance no. 18/2009 allows residency on a post only in public health units in understaffed areas, while paragraph (4) prohibits it altogether in clinical hospitals with university clinical wards, in institutes, in clinical medical centres and in regional hospitals. Paragraph (5) gives a single way round: the shortage specialties set by order of the minister of health. The present order is exactly that act, and it opens the door of the university hospitals for 25 specialties.

The second effect is felt by the candidate. Whoever passes the competition on a post in these specialties signs an individual contract of employment for an indefinite period with the hospital that opened the post, before beginning the training. The contract carries the obligation to work there for a number of years equal to the length of the residency, and the residency lasts between 3 and 7 years, depending on the specialty.

The third effect is the sanction. If the doctor leaves before the term, they bear all the costs incurred for their training and repay the installation allowance, in proportion to the period not worked. The obligation is laid down by an addendum to the contract of employment, under the Labour Code, so it is not a simple administrative clause.

The fourth effect is on the hospitals. A university clinical hospital in one of the 25 specialties can now attract a resident on a post, that is someone tied to it by contract for the whole length of the training and for as long again. For units with a chronic shortage of staff, this is the only form of recruitment with a long-term commitment provided for by law.

The fifth effect is one of information. The order says which the specialties are, but not where the posts are. The units and the number of posts are approved separately, by another order of the minister of health, under Article 18(3) of the same ordinance, and the candidate needs both in order to make a plan.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The first change is the number. For the session of 16 November 2025 and for the one of 17 November 2024, the list had 23 specialties, identical to each other, word for word. Now there are 25. The increase is 8.7% in number of entries, after two years in which the list did not move at all.

The second change is the content of the two entries. Geriatrics and gerontology appear for the first time in the lists of recent years, and so does paediatric psychiatry. Both cover categories of patients with growing needs and with few training places, and their presence on the list means that the Ministry of Health formally acknowledges the shortage of doctors there.

The third change is the absence of any departure. Nothing was taken off last year’s list, although the order is issued annually and could correct in both directions. The result is a list that only grows, without any act showing whether the shortage has eased anywhere.

The fourth change is at the signature. The order with the shortage specialties is signed by the interim minister of health himself, while the order with the fee, issued on the same day, for the same competition, carries the signature of a state secretary, for the minister. Two twin acts, two signatories.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The list grows where the shortage is visible: the medicine of old age and the mental health of children receive, for the first time in these sessions, the route of residency on a post.
  • The candidate gains security. The post is guaranteed from the first day, through a contract of employment for an indefinite period, not after the residency ends.
  • Clinical university hospitals, institutes and clinical medical centres can recruit in these 25 specialties, although the general rule excludes them from residency on a post.
  • The act appears 51 days before the competition of 15 November 2026, so the candidate has time to decide between a post and a place.
  • The text is short and without complicated cross-references: one list, one unit of time, one competition session.

What remains a problem

  • The order shows no figure at all. It is not known how many posts are opened in each specialty, in which hospitals and in which towns, and without those figures the list stays a declaration of intent.
  • There is no published criterion for a specialty entering or leaving the list. It cannot be checked why geriatrics came in now and not two years ago.
  • The list has never shrunk. In 2024 and 2025 it had 23 entries, now it has 25, and no specialty has been taken off, although the act is issued every year.
  • The list is neither numbered nor in alphabetical order. „Medicină de urgență”, emergency medicine, comes before „medicină de familie”, family medicine, and „microbiologie medicală”, medical microbiology, before „medicină sportivă”, sports medicine, just as in the orders of 2024 and 2025.
  • The commitment of 3 to 7 years, with the obligation to repay the costs on leaving, is not written in the order but in the ordinance that the order applies. A candidate who reads only the list does not find out what they are signing.

Practical advice

  1. Check whether the specialty you are interested in is on the list before you choose between a post and a place. From 15 November 2026 there are 25 specialties, and outside them residency on a post cannot be done in clinical university hospitals, institutes or clinical medical centres.
  2. Read Article 18 of Government Ordinance no. 18/2009 before the competition. It is there, not in the order, that it is written that you sign a contract of employment before the training begins and that you stay at the hospital for a number of years equal to the length of the residency.
  3. Work out the real commitment. The residency lasts between 3 and 7 years, and the obligation to stay is added on top of it, so in the long cases we are talking about fourteen years tied to the same unit.
  4. Ask the hospital about the installation allowance before you sign. If you leave before the term, it is repaid in proportion to the period not worked, alongside the training costs.
  5. Follow the order that approves the units and the number of posts. This one sets only the specialties, and the concrete places appear in another act of the minister of health.
  6. If you are aiming at geriatrics and gerontology or at paediatric psychiatry, keep in mind that this is the first session in recent years in which they appear on the list, so do not rely on the experience of past years.

Frequently asked questions

How many shortage specialties are there in 2026?
Twenty-five, for the session of 15 November 2026. At the 2024 and 2025 sessions there were 23.
Which specialties have come onto the list?
Geriatrics and gerontology, that is the medicine of old age, and paediatric psychiatry. Nothing was taken off the 2025 list.
What does a shortage specialty mean?
A specialty for which, by way of exception from the prohibition in Article 18(4) of Government Ordinance no. 18/2009, residency on a post can be organised in clinical hospitals with university clinical wards, in institutes or in clinical medical centres as well.
What does taking a residency post oblige me to do?
To sign an individual contract of employment for an indefinite period with the hospital that published the post, before beginning the training, and to work there for a number of years equal to the length of the residency, that is between 3 and 7 years, depending on the specialty.
What happens if I leave earlier?
You bear all the costs incurred for your professional training and repay the installation allowance, in proportion to the period not worked, under the addendum to the contract of employment.
Where are the posts?
The order does not say. The units and the specialties for which residency on a post is organised are approved every year by another order of the minister of health, under Article 18(3) of Government Ordinance no. 18/2009.
How many of the 25 specialties concern children?
Eleven. Nine have the word paediatric in their name, the tenth is paediatrics, and neonatology deals with newborn babies, which means 44% of the list.
From when does the order apply?
From publication, 25 September 2026. The act does not lay down a later date, and Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000 provides that normative acts, with the exception of laws and ordinances, enter into force on the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania unless they themselves contain another date.

Editorial analysis

The order has three articles and a list. It gets nothing wrong and contradicts itself nowhere, but it is an act that says a great deal through what it chooses not to say. The first observation comes from the counting, not from the text: 11 of the 25 shortage specialties are the medicine of childhood. Nine carry the word paediatric in their name, the tenth is paediatrics, and neonatology deals with newborn babies. That means that 44% of the list of medical trades in which the State cannot find people has to do with the care of children, in a country where orders of this kind are issued annually and where the proportion has not changed significantly since 2024.

The second observation concerns the one-way direction of the list. In 2024 it had 23 entries, in 2025 the same 23, now 25. No specialty has ever left. A list that only grows can mean two things: either the shortage is deepening everywhere, or nobody reassesses the old entries. Since the order publishes neither the criteria for entering nor those for leaving, the distinction cannot be made from outside. A single line with the number of unfilled posts per specialty would settle the question.

The third observation concerns what the State buys with this exception. The rule in Article 18(4) of Government Ordinance no. 18/2009 keeps residency on a post away from clinical university hospitals precisely because there is already competition for places there. The exception for the shortage specialties reverses the logic: where nobody comes of their own accord, the guaranteed post becomes an instrument of attraction. The price is paid by the young doctor, who is tied to a unit for a period equal to the length of the training, that is for a total which, in the specialties of 7 years, reaches fourteen years from the first day of residency.

The fourth observation concerns the two twin acts. The order with the fee and the one with the shortage specialties are signed on the same day, published on the same page and concern the same competition, but they have different signatories: one is signed for the minister by a state secretary, the other by the interim minister himself. It is not an error, because both forms of signature are valid, but it shows that the acts followed separate routes until the last moment, although neither of them makes sense without the other.

What should be changed

  • The order should contain the number of posts per specialty. A list without figures does not allow any candidate to compare the chances between specialties, nor the public to see whether the exception really covers a real shortage.
  • The criteria for entering and leaving the list should be published. A measurable threshold, for example the percentage of unfilled posts at national level, would replace a decision that appears with no written justification at all.
  • The list should be numbered. Twenty-five names strung together with commas, four of which themselves contain the conjunction „și”, while the last two are not even separated by a comma in the act, are hard to count, and their number is the basic information of the act.
  • The order should recall the length of the commitment. A sentence about the contract of employment signed before the training begins and about the obligation to stay would be of use to exactly the candidate who reads the list and not the ordinance.
  • The two orders of the same competition should be issued as a single act or with cross-references to each other. The fee and the shortage specialties are read together, and at present neither of them mentions the other.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 819 of 25 September 2026, page 13 16 pages PDF, 143 KB the act starts on page 13

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.